Leah, Kate, and Melissa break down last week’s agonizing two-and-a-half-hour oral argument in Louisiana v. Callais, a case that could see the already weakened Voting Rights Act gutted even further. They highlight the themes that emerged and dig into the case’s broader context with Sam Spital, Associate Director-Counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, then recap the week’s other arguments and the latest legal news. Finally, Leah talks with Joyce Vance about her new book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy.

Favorite things:

• Leah: The Bow Street Runners series, Lisa Kleypas; Flirting Lessons, Jasmine Guillory
• Kate: What Are We Living Through? By Jedediah Britton-Purdy & David Pozen (Boston Review); Originalist ‘Bombshell’ Complicates Case on Trump’s Power to Fire Officials, Adam Liptak (NYT)
• Melissa: The Lawyer, the Witch, and the Witness: Proving Witchcraft in the English Courts, Trace M. Maddox (Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities); Slow Dance, Rainbow Rowell; One Battle After Another

Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025!

• 3/6/26 – San Francisco
• 3/7/26 – Los Angeles

Learn more: http://crooked.com/events

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Order your copy of Leah's book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes
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