JUSTICE with Dahlia Lithwick: Supreme frustration, counting yourself in, and doing the work of democracy

Julie and Casey sit down with journalist, long-time Supreme Court correspondent, podcast host, and author Dahlia Lithwick to talk about the state of justice (and the state of The Justices) in the US. Along the way, we dig into gendered perception of emotion and what it costs to maintain a “poker face”, the difference between who does the work and who gets the credit, and how we fight for hope in the midst of . . . all of this. 

 

TOP TAKEAWAYS:

• Hear how Dahlia navigates the responsibility of journalists to thread the needle between not normalizing the unthinkable and not dialing everything up to 12 so nothing gets heard.
• There is enormous frustration and possible marginalization for anyone in the law outside of the “white male norm” . . . AND Dahlia sees that ability to constantly codeswitch as a gift. “It’s actually the power to be in two places at once.”
• “Who becomes famous and who does the work never perfectly correlates” — in the real world, when solving for huge intractable issues, the “hero narrative” rarely serves us — both because individuals are flawed and institutions are complex, but also because real change comes through the efforts of many, often unsung people.

 

Dahlia Lithwick is a senior editor at Slate, and in that capacity, has been writing their "Supreme Court Dispatches" and "Jurisprudence" columns since 1999. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and Commentary, among other places. She is host of Amicus, Slate’s award-winning biweekly podcast about the law and the Supreme Court. Her 2022 book, Lady Justice, was a New York Times bestseller. In 2018, Lithwick the Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis. She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October, 2018. 

Purchase LADY JUSTICE: WOMEN, THE LAW, AND THE BATTLE TO SAVE AMERICA here.