Five Questions with Supreme Court Expert Dahlia Lithwick

Dahlia Lithwick is a Stanford educated lawyer and a journalist who writes incisively and decisively about the Supreme Court. She is also one of my favorite people. Dahlia is innately sensible and unafraid, seemingly unable to avoid, speaking truth to power. And on her beat, the truth matters deeply.

Where others tread lightly when federal judges and Supreme Court justices are involved, Dahlia doesn’t hesitate to criticize when warranted, while maintaining and helping us arrive at objective and well informed views about the Court’s work.

Early in the Trump administration, I got to meet Dahlia, whose work I’d been learning from for years, on a rule of law panel at the ACLU’s annual meeting.

Her official bio reads as follows: “Dahlia Lithwick is an award-winning journalist and author, and Senior Editor at Slate, having written their Supreme Court Dispatches and Jurisprudence columns since 1999. Lithwick also hosts Amicus, Slate’s award-winning biweekly podcast about the law and the Supreme Court. Lithwick earned her BA in English at Yale University and her JD degree at Stanford University, and has held visiting faculty positions at numerous Universities. Lithwick’s recent book, Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America - with its powerful commentary on the political ramifications of Trump’s presidency and its spotlighting of the women lawyers doing the work since his inauguration - became an instant New York Times Bestseller.” What her bio doesn’t tell you, is that Dahlia has a killer sense of humor and is fluent in both irony and sarcasm, in the best ways possible.

We are fortunate to have Dahlia as our guest for “Five Questions” tonight, closing out the first week of the new Supreme Court term. If her answers leave you wanting more, her book, Lady Justice, is just out in paperback, and it’s an excellent read. Find it at your favorite bookseller.

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