Strict Scrutiny

In their second emergency episode in two days, Leah, Melissa, and Kate break down the Court’s final day of the term and folks, it’s a doozy. We’ve got America’s preeminent “father of daughters” Coach Brett Kavanaugh’s...

In this emergency episode, Leah and Kate break down today’s incredibly consequential decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook, which followed the Project 2025 playbook to rewrite almost a century of precedent...

Melissa, Leah, and Kate briefly recap the Court’s two major immigration decisions last week (for a deeper dive, check out last week’s emergency episode), before digging into the Second Amendment case, Wolford v. Lopez...

In this emergency episode, Kate, Melissa, and Leah unpack the two major immigration opinions handed down by SCOTUS today. The brutal TL;DR, courtesy of Justice Sotomayor: “The consequences of today’s decision are...

Leah, Melissa, Kate, and special guest Elie Mystal of The Nation speculate about why the Court is hoarding opinions this late into bad decision season before diving deep on the ruling in United States v. Hemani, which...

Kate and Leah cover this week’s three Supreme Court opinions—one featuring a killer Ketanji Brown Jackson dissent—before turning to legal news, where bad behavior is everywhere. We’ve got a violent judge who can’t park...

Leah and Melissa break down what may be a new low for the Court: granting Alabama’s request to reinstate racially discriminatory voting maps. Then, they turn to the big questions: how dead is Trump’s slush fund for...

Leah, Kate, and Melissa recap another busy week in legal news, covering the continued fallout from the Voting Rights Act case, Louisiana v. Callais, the ongoing saga of the DOJ’s insurrectionist slush fund, wild twists...

Kate, Melissa, and Leah try to wrap their heads around Trump’s nearly $2 billion DOJ slush fund, which they agree may be—despite extremely stiff competition—the biggest act of trolling and self-dealing of his second...

Kate and Leah break down the Supreme Court’s extension of a stay allowing for continued mail-order access to mifepristone, from the Court’s unconscionable failure to meet its own arbitrary deadline to the unhinged...

Kate & Leah talk to Melissa about her new book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader, or, as we like to call it at Strict HQ, The Constitution (Melissa’s Version). Then all...

The 5th Circuit gave us a doozy late on Friday night by tightening access to the abortion drug mifepristone—Leah and Melissa break it down. Then, the full crew dives deeper into the Court’s catastrophic Voting Rights...

Kate and Leah are joined by Democracy Docket’s Marc Elias to break down the Supreme Court’s shameful assault on multiracial democracy in its ruling on the Voting Rights Act case, Louisiana v. Callais. Get tickets for...

From the DOJ’s targeting of the Southern Poverty Law Center for its anti-KKK work to Kash Patel’s outrageous lawsuit against The Atlantic for its reporting on his unfitness for office to the Fifth Circuit’s legal...

Melissa, Kate, and Leah break down an absolute boatload of beefs: Trump vs. Pope Leo, Sonia Sotomayor vs. Coach Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas vs. progressives, and Ketanji Brown Jackson vs. the shadow docket, before...

Even though the Supreme Court took a break from hearing oral arguments, there was still plenty of legal news breaking every day. Katie Phang joins Leah to recap that news, including Trump's threats against Iran, the...

Last week saw oral arguments in the birthright citizenship case, Trump v. Barbara, and listeners, it finally happened: a legal argument so outlandish from the Trump administration that even this Court will have to rule...

Today the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Chiles v. Salazer, the case involving a Colorado ban on conversion therapy. Leah is joined by Shannon Minter, Legal Director at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, to...

Kate and guest co-host Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy kick off the show by covering the latest legal news, including developments at the Pentagon and Department of Justice, as well as Trump’s ominous threat to judges...

Leah, Kate, and Melissa preview this week’s arguments at the Court, including Watson v. Republican National Committee, a challenge over when election offices must receive absentee ballots in order for them to be counted.

Leah, Melissa and Kate catch up on all the sketchy things happening in the judicial and executive branches.

Kate, Leah, and Melissa break down the oral arguments in United States v. Hemani, and speak with California Attorney General Rob Bonta about standing up to the Trump administration on issues like tariffs, federal law...

Leah catches up on legal news with Bec Ingber, Chris Geidner, and Marc Elias.

Kate is joined by Friend of the Pod Steve Vladeck (One First) to break down last week’s legal news, including developments around noncompliance in the lower courts and SCOTUS ethics. Then, Leah and Melissa join to...

In today’s much-anticipated ruling, the Supreme Court struck down Trump's tariffs. But how the opinion, dissent, and concurrences break down paints a much more complicated—and concerning—picture. What happens next?