Why the Court’s Long

The “America Has a King Now’ Edition The Supreme Court hands down a mix of decisions on several of this term’s most consequential cases: in Slaughter and Cook, Trump’s attempted firings at the FTC and the Fed redefine executive power; birthright citizenship prevails; and the Court upholds state bans on transgender athletes. Listen & Subscribe Choose your preferred player: Get Your Slate Plus Podcast If you can't access your feeds, please contact customer support. Listen on your computer: Apple Podcasts will only work on MacOS operating systems since Catalina. We do not support Android apps on desktop at this time. Listen on your device:RECOMMENDED These links will only work if you're on the device you listen to podcasts on. Set up manually: Episode Notes This week, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and guest host Ruth Marcus discuss this week’s momentous Supreme Court rulings. The FTC/Slaughter case overturns nearly a century of precedent protecting independent agencies from presidential power while Cook makes a suspicious exception for the Fed, birthright citizenship prevails on constitutional grounds but the close vote further reveals what’s broken at the court, and the court rules against transgender people, again, by upholding state bans on trans athletes. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: John Kruzel for Reuters: Supreme Court strengthens Trump’s hold on key levers of government power The Editorial Board of The New York Times: Opinion: The Court’s Hypocrisy Cass R. Sunstein and Philip Hamburger for The New York Times: Opinion: Guest Essay: What Is the Supreme Court Doing to Presidential Power? The Editors of National Review: If the Fed Is Not Executive, What Is It? Stephen L. Carter for Bloomberg: Opinion: The Supreme Court Drew the Right Line on Trump’s Firing Spree Amy B. Wang and Maegan Vazquez for The Washington Post: NPR retracts story reporting Justice Alito is retiring from Supreme Court Amy Howe for SCOTUSblog: Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship The Editorial Board of The New York Times: Opinion: The Supreme Court Remembers Its Principles The Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal: Opinion: Trump Loses on Birthright Citizenship The Editorial Board of The Washington Post: Opinion: The Supreme Court’s birthright overreach Ruth Marcus for The New Yorker: The Supreme Court’s Check on Trump’s Power Was Too Close for Comfort Adrian Carrasquillo for The Bulwark: Trump Lost on Birthright Citizenship. But He’s Winning the Immigration Wars. Jonah Goldberg for The Dispatch: The Birthright Citizenship Debate Is About to Get Worse Louise Radnofsky and James Romoser for The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Upholds State Restrictions on Transgender Athletes Chris Geidner for LawDork (Substack): Supreme Court’s conservatives OK trans sports bans Suzanne B. Goldberg for MS NOW: Opinion: The Supreme Court’s ruling on trans athletes is legal scapegoating Ian Millhiser for Vox: The Supreme Court’s trans sports ruling is a cautionary tale for all left-leaning lawyers Here are this week’s chatters: Emily: Sean Gregory for Time: The U.S. Can Thank Birthright Citizenship for Its Best World Cup Player; Mike Lee for Politico: About that ‘OUR SOIL’ meme Ruth: HBO: Somebody Somewhere; Stef Rubino for Autostraddle: Want to Learn What It’s Like to Be Queer in America? Watch ‘Somebody Somewhere’; Kathryn VanArendonk for Vulture: A ‘Somebody Somewhere’ Spectacle David: Town & Country, a novel by Brian Schaefer Listener chatter from Lauren Binstock in Toronto, Canada: Canada Ant Colony x Down the Anthill: Ant Cowboys: Ants Injure Aphids for Easy Farming; Ada McVean for McGill Office for Science and Society: Farmer ants and their aphid herds For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, David, and guest host Ruth Marcus discuss how Trump’s rally-turned-fireworks-delay, a militarized downtown, and a rebranded “Freedom 250” have turned DC’s festivities into a loyalty test. They ponder whether skipping DC’s fireworks means ceding the flag to Trump and if attending old-fashioned local cookouts and parades is the more patriotic move. In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily Bazelon talks with Senator Chris Murphy about his new book, Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America. Murphy lays out a provocative agenda for Democrats to call Americans to national service, break up corporate power, rebuild local communities, and create a bigger tent that reaches disaffected conservatives hungry for change. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Nina Porzucki Research by Emily Ditto You can find the full Political Gabfest show pages here. Want more Political Gabfest? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Political Gabfest show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/gabfestplus to get access wherever you listen. Find out more about David Plotz’s monthly tours of Ft. DeRussy, the secret Civil War fort hidden in Rock Creek Park.