The Supreme Court Allows Third-Country Deportations to Continue

Leah Litman (0:00)

Strict Scrutiny is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

It's fall, y'all, which means it's back to school season. And this year, because of the courts, five million children across Texas have fallen back to the days of religious proselytization in schools. Yes, five million children across Texas are going to be greeted by the Ten Commandments in their classrooms. Texas politicians passed a law requiring the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, forcing their religion on every kid in those schools.

28 families in Texas, supported by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, are taking the fight to the Supreme Court. And we need you to amplify their voices before the Supreme Court gets its hands on this case. We've seen how public pressure works, and the public needs to be clued in about this case. You can hear one of the plaintiffs here. They're going to go up, but we're going to fight to get them taken down. That's Texas public school parent, Ted Lowe. Ted and Rebecca Lowe are an interfaith couple. Ted is Jewish and Rebecca is Christian. And their kids are in Texas public schools. The story they tell in this video is moving, and we hope everyone hears and shares it. There is a human cost of Christian national policies like these Ten Commandments laws and the decisions the Supreme Court hands down. Visit au.org/tenc to learn more about this case and how you can help join the fight to protect church state separation.

Kate Shaw (1:18)

Mr. Chief Justice, please report.

Leah Litman (1:22)

It's an old joke, but when a hardy man argues against two beautiful ladies like this, they're going to have the last word.

Melissa Murray (1:30)

She spoke, not elegantly, but with unmistakable clarity.

Leah Litman (1:36)

She said, I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.

Hello, and welcome back to Strict Scrutiny, your podcast about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. We are your hosts, and once again, we are here in full force. I'm Leah Litman.

Kate Shaw (2:10)

I'm Kate Shaw.

Melissa Murray (2:11)

And I'm Melissa Murray. And guess what, folks? I have a banger of a show for you because our favorite justices, okay, let me take that again. Our justices are back on the bench.

Kate Shaw (2:23)

They're not my justices, Melissa.

SPEAKER_4 (2:24)

Nope. Exactly.

Melissa Murray (2:25)

I'd redo that once more.

Kate Shaw (2:28)

Take three.

SPEAKER_4 (2:28)

Those justices. Take three.

Melissa Murray (2:31)

So those justices are back on their hustle, which is to say that they are back on the bench hearing cases because this episode drops on the first Monday of October. So this is going to be a full episode. We're going to do argument previews. We're going to get you up to speed on everything that the court is doing, but we will also bring you breaking news. And of course, we're going to have a fantastic interview. And then we will end with a rundown of our favorite things. So shall we start with the breaking news? Let's do it.

All right. So folks, in the week leading up to the beginning of another Supreme Court term, the Republican appointees on this court decided to remind us of exactly who they are. So do you all remember all of the goodwill the court amassed? Not with us, obviously, but with other people. They amassed all of this goodwill last year by doing the absolute bare minimum to prevent Donald Trump from taking over federal elections using the post office, at least for now, per Brett Kavanaugh.

Or do you remember at the end of last term when they amassed some goodwill by ruling narrowly against the president and affirming that maybe the Constitution means what it says about birthright citizenship, TBD, and then they also amassed some goodwill by preventing the president from wrecking the economy in the Tariff and Lisa Cook Fed cases? Well, all of that happened. All of that goodwill was amassed. Lots of people were lauding this court for doing the absolute least. And then this conservative supermajority decided to do something insane with all of that goodwill. They decided that they were going to, wait for it, facilitate torture, really and truly. Yes.

Leah Litman (4:15)

So for your consideration, there was last Wednesday night absolutely horrifying botched execution of Christa Pike. Pike was sentenced to death in Tennessee for participating in the murder of a classmate in 1995 She had recently filed a motion to reopen the denial of her habeas petition, arguing that the state had changed its position on the relevance of some mitigation evidence she had presented. Early on Wednesday, the Sixth Circuit granted a temporary stay of execution. Pike had wanted to introduce evidence of the extensive physical and sexual abuse. She suffered as a child, which the state now doesn't really dispute happened, and the Sixth Circuit agreed to a brief stay to allow her to potentially air that claim. The state of Tennessee ran to the Supreme Court to ask it to lift the stay, and the court in a six to three totally unexplained decision, lifted the stay, allowed Tennessee to expedite the execution and proceed, a decision that Justice Sotomayor joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson called, quote, stunning.