Lawless How the Supreme Court runs on conservative grievance, fringe theories, and bad vibes

Litman (law, Univ. of Michigan) brings her sharp wit and scathing criticism--a style replete with pop culture references familiar to listeners of her podcast, Strict Scrutiny--to this readable, entertaining, yet deeply discerning portrait of the current Supreme Court. Examining five broad areas of constitutional law (abortion and reaction against women's rights; LGBTQ+ rights and religious carve outs for antidiscrimination compliance; electoral law and voting rights; money in politics and corruption; and deregulation and the administrative state), Litman traces how the court's increasingly ideological conservatism has reshaped law in myriad ways that undermine citizens' rights and threaten democracy. Updating Michael Waldman's similarly revealing The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America (CH, Dec'23, 61-1177), Litman critiques the evolving jurisprudence manifested in recent cases. Her forte is her attention to arcane but clearly explained procedures and interpretive methodologies. Analyses of legal substance and procedures yield ample evidence to buttress her thesis: the polemical but convincing claim that today's court is no longer doing "law" as a distinct discipline for resolving conflicts, but has abandoned that enterprise for politics driven by partisan and ideological fumes. The book's controversial arguments deserve judicious consideration by all concerned citizens. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. --Augustus B. Cochran, emeritus, Agnes Scott College

Litman, a lawyer and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, debuts with a scathing takedown of the Roberts court. She argues that the court's conservative justices operate under the belief that "Republicans are being treated unfairly by the increasingly diverse society that no longer shares their views" and craft their decisions accordingly, with an eye toward protecting their "oppressed minority" (in the words of Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas) rather than attempting to adhere to legal precedent. Litman traces this "no laws, just vibes" attitude through recent controversies and decisions, ranging from Justice Samuel Alito's flying of an upside down flag in support of the Stop the Steal movement ahead of the January 6 insurrection to the court's obsessive "hunt for discrimination against religious and social conservatives" supposedly hidden within Covid lockdown measures. Along the way, Litman ingeniously mines the past half century of conservative politics for comedy gold as she builds her case that the movement's bugbears are now driving the court, from Richard Nixon's taped Oval Office rant about how ancient Greek civilization was destroyed by gay people to Trump adviser Stephen Miller's ominous suggestion that "what is happening with Taylor Swift is not organic." It's a clear-eyed and alarming view of a court captured by far-right conspiracy theories. (May)