Speaker
Leah Litman
Appearances over time
1 episodes
Episodes
1
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
When Trump took office, more than one million people were living in the US with Temporary Protected Status from countries including Haiti, Syria, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.
Leah Litman described the potential mass rescission of TPS across multiple nationalities as the largest delegalization in United States history.
Sam Alito's majority opinion wiped away decades of precedent allowing courts to ensure the executive branch followed required processes before ending TPS programs.
The Supreme Court ruled that individuals physically stopped outside US borders are not considered to have 'arrived' and thus have no right to claim asylum, creating a blanket loophole for the executive branch.
Justice Sotomayor read portions of her asylum dissent from the bench — an extraordinarily rare act reserved for the strongest objections — and Alito then responded, which is almost unprecedented.
Leah Litman warned that the Supreme Court's delay in releasing the birthright citizenship decision may signal it will not be unanimous, which would dramatically shift the Overton window on constitutional citizenship.
The Supreme Court's pending mail ballot case could nullify or change how votes are counted in 29 states, potentially destabilizing midterm election administration.
The practice of counting ballots outside of Election Day originated during the Civil War to ensure Union soldiers serving away from home could vote.
Aggregating this week's decisions, the pattern is consistent: corporations cannot be sued for human rights abuses or cancer-causing labels, but individuals cannot sue state or federal officials for violating their rights.
Susan Collins falsely claimed Roe would have been overturned regardless of her Kavanaugh vote; in fact, Chief Justice Roberts did not vote to overturn Roe, making Kavanaugh the decisive 5th vote.
The Supreme Court carved out a special exception for the Federal Reserve from its new unitary executive theory, illustrating the theory's catastrophic implications for the global economy.
Trump called Haiti a 'shithole country,' said Haitians had AIDS, and accused them of poisoning American blood — and Alito declared none of it 'overtly racial' without quoting a single remark. If you won't repeat what someone said to prove they're not racist, that's the tell.
The Supreme Court held that migrants physically stopped outside the US border haven't 'arrived' and can't claim asylum. The perverse result: those who sneak in illegally have more rights than those who present themselves lawfully at the door.
Justice Sotomayor read her dissent aloud from the bench — a deeply rare act of protest — and then Alito did something almost unprecedented: he responded. Leah Litman says Alito's behavior was 'petulant and unbefitting a justice.'
This week corporations can't be sued for human rights abuses or inadequate cancer warnings, but TPS holders, prisoners, immigrants, and permanent residents all lost the ability to enforce their rights. The Roberts Court has one consistent answer to the question 'who gets to sue': corporations.
The 14th Amendment plainly says all persons born in the US are citizens, yet the Court has sat on this case for months. Leah Litman warns the delay likely signals a non-unanimous ruling — and even dissents from Thomas and Alito could make rejecting birthright citizenship the next Republican judicial litmus test.
Right-wing legal circles have two theories: equate unauthorized immigration with a military invasion so children of undocumented parents aren't citizens, or generalize the diplomats' children exception into a broad 'allegiance' test. Both echo the logic of Dred Scott v. Sanford.
Leah Litman expects the six Republican-appointed justices to uphold state bans on trans athletes, but the real danger is a ruling that Title IX not only permits but requires such bans — or an equal protection holding stripping trans people of meaningful judicial scrutiny in any context.
The RNC is asking the Supreme Court to rule that ballots received even one day after Election Day can't be counted, which would upend voting procedures in 29 states mid-cycle. The practice of flexible mail ballot counting dates back to Civil War-era protections for Union soldiers.
The pending NRSC coordination case would let party committees give unlimited coordinated money directly to candidates — the last remaining firewall against unlimited direct contributions. If contribution limits fall, Elon Musk doesn't need a super PAC; he just writes a check.
Susan Collins claimed on Fox News that Roe would have been overturned regardless of her vote for Kavanaugh because of the 6-3 vote. Wrong: Roberts did not vote to overrule Roe — only five justices did. Collins confirmed the fifth.
Four years after Dobbs, pro-choice identification is at an all-time high and hasn't dropped. Dan Pfeiffer argues the 2024 result was a one-off shaped by unique circumstances; Leah Litman worries the misogyny Americans tolerate may prevent real electoral accountability.
The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that only the EPA — not state courts or juries — can require changes to pesticide warning labels. Leah Litman thinks the court probably got it right because Congress explicitly chose uniformity and EPA expertise over state-level accountability.
The Supreme Court adopted the unitary executive theory giving Trump sweeping power to fire agency heads — then added a bespoke carve-out for the Federal Reserve because otherwise the president could blow up the global economy. Trump immediately tried to fire a Fed governor anyway.
Leah Litman argues the Supreme Court engineered the birthright citizenship case to give itself a PR win — striking down the order to look independent while all the other harmful rulings fade from memory. The Court is building its own cover story.
The Supreme Court ruled that courts can no longer check whether the executive branch followed the law before ending TPS — effectively making federal statutes optional for any president. Leah Litman says Trump or any official could now openly defy these laws without legal consequence.
Analysis
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- Government 91%
- Society & Culture 9%
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