The Gist

Courting Politics

The Supreme Court today is seen as a critical asset for liberals and conservatives to fight over. Was that always so?

The nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court pose for a group portrait on June 1, 2017 in Washington.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Listen to Episode 1,046 of Slate’s The Gist:

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Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination has restarted the debate on how we vet candidates and whether the Supreme Court is too easy to game. Lori Ringhand, a professor of law at the University of Georgia and an expert on the Supreme Court, explains how much the court has actually changed, or not, in our lifetime.

In the Spiel, three theories on how this whole Mueller investigation thing is going to end.

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Podcast production by Pierre Bienaimé and Daniel Schroeder.