About this episode

Leah and guest Emily Amick discuss the week's legal news, focusing on due process issues and the impact of the Trump administration on legal decisions.

Huge news for lawyers: You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE! More info at crooked.com/strict_cle Friend of the Pod Emily Amick of Emily in Your Phone joins Leah to break down the week’s legal news, and the various and sundry ways due process is getting railroaded by Trump, the courts, and the terrible (mostly) men therein. While no discussion of bad decisions would be complete without the Fifth Circuit, we also have an appearance from Senator Josh Hawley, whose effort to limit information on medical abortion options has disturbing links to the playbook used against gender-affirming care. Then, Leah speaks with Kalpana Kotagal, Commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, about being the lone Democratic appointee after Trump fired the others, and the work of the Commission in a post-independent agency world. Check out Emily’s Substack , Instagram , and her book, Democracy in Retrograde . Favorite things: Leah : The Off Campus Series , Elle Kennedy; Game of Rogues , Julie Anne Long; Andrew Tate's Empire of Abuse , Heidi Blake (+ Blake’s interview with WITHpod ); Autonomy News ; this decision from the Hawaii Supreme Court; Subpoenas About Reporting on Qatar…

People in this episode

Host: Leah

Guests: Emily Amick, Kalpana Kotagal

Topics covered

• legal news
• due process
• Trump administration
• gender-affirming care
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• medical abortion options

Keywords

• due process
• legal news
• Trump
• Fifth Circuit
• gender-affirming care
• medical abortion
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Products: Ride or Die, Smitten Kitchen’s zucchini pasta

Books & works: Democracy in Retrograde, The Off Campus Series, Game of Rogues, Andrew Tate's Empire of Abuse, Careless People, The God of the Woods

More episodes of Strict Scrutiny

• We Need To Talk About Court Expansion · September 3, 2026 · 45 min
• SCOTUS Greenlights Trump's Ballroom · September 1, 2026 · 34 min
• Is SCOTUS Letting Trump Meddle in the Midterms? · August 31, 2026 · 1h 30m
• Know Your Rights: Do You Have to Talk to Cops? · August 27, 2026 · 37 min
• What Does Peak Fascism Look Like? · August 24, 2026 · 1h 53m
• All the President’s Henchmen · August 17, 2026 · 1h 36m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Strict Scrutiny podcast page.