Amicus

Amicus: Will You Accept This Robe?

Is Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch really Scalia 2.0? And the constitutional and human costs of Trump’s Muslim ban.

Listen to Episode 59 of Slate’s Amicus:

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In an elaborately choreographed prime-time ceremony this week, President Trump tapped Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court seat that has been vacant for almost a year. We sit down with the Constitutional Accountability Center’s Elizabeth Wydra to examine Gorsuch’s judicial record, whether he really is Scalia 2.0, and the difficult choices confronting Senate Democrats in the wake of this nomination.

We also consider the ramifications of reports that some U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are defying federal court orders around Trump’s new travel restrictions. Slate staffers Mark Joseph Stern and Leon Neyfakh tell us what they learned from constitutional law scholars about the possibility of a standoff between two branches of the federal government. (Read our Slate piece on the subject here.)

Finally, we zero in on one of the many lawsuits filed this week against Trump’s executive order. Aziz v. Trump centers on a pair of young men who were en route to join their father in Michigan when the order was issued and wound up being deported to Ethiopia upon their arrival at Dulles International Airport in Virginia. We’re joined by the Legal Aid Justice Center’s Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case.

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Podcast production by Tony Field.