What Does Peak Fascism Look Like?

**Leah Litman** (0:00)
Strict Scrutiny is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. 250 years into the American experiment, it's time for all of us to decide, what kind of a country do we want to be? The founding fathers got a lot of things wrong, but one thing they got right was knowing the church and state need to be kept separate. Christian nationalists are trying to destroy that history and take this country down a scary path. They're misusing government power to impose their beliefs, rewrite our history, and decide who belongs in America.
Americans United refused to let that happen. Every single day, Americans United is fighting back and holding the line against Christian nationalism with everything they've got. AU has sued the Trump administration seven times in the last year alone and 12 times since his second administration began.
AU has challenged government officials who use taxpayer resources to promote their religious beliefs. They've exposed abuses of power, defended public schools, and held the government accountable when it violates the Constitution. But filing lawsuits, changing policy, and community advocacy don't happen on their own. They happen because people like you decide to be part of AU's fight. If you're looking for an empowered community to join, take a look at what's going on with AU. Visit au.org/crooked to learn more and join the fight today.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:16)
Mr. Chief Justice, please support. It's an old joke, but when an argument man argues against two beautiful ladies like this, they're going to have the last word.

**Melissa Murray** (1:28)
She spoke not elegantly, but with unmistakable clarity. She said, I ask no favor for my sex.
All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.

**Leah Litman** (1:58)
Hello and welcome back to Strict Scrutiny, your podcast about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. I'm your lone regular host for today, Leah Litman, and I'm very happy to be joined by guest host Somil Trivedi.
Somil is the Advocacy Director and Senior Counsel at Court Accountability, whose work we'll be talking about some on this episode. He's also worked previously at Democracy Forward, ACLU, Maryland Legal Aid, DOJ, and WilmerHale. Welcome to the show, Somil.

**Somil Trivedi** (2:22)
Hey, thanks for having me, Leah. Happy near end of summer.

**Leah Litman** (2:25)
Near end of summer, which I cannot mentally get around to, given that school starts today, the day this episode is released.
What a world.
Okay. So, wow. I already started out kind of somewhat bleak at the top of this episode. We haven't even gotten to the legal news yet. No, I'm excited for the school year. I did after all choose to stay in school forever. But so here's what we have in store for you today. Somil and I are going to discuss some legal news, maybe even play a little game or two. Then we'll share our favorite things. After our conversation, you'll hear a great conversation that Melissa had with Jesse Wegman about Jesse's great new book, The Lost Founder, James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution. So be sure to stay tuned for that. And also, this isn't the only episode of Strict Scrutiny this week. This Thursday, you will have your second episode that's part of our bonus series, Know Your Rights. Two weeks ago, I had a conversation with Jocelyn Simonson about knowing your rights regarding cop watching to observe and record law enforcement. This week, you'll hear Melissa and me talking with Daniel Harawa about your rights not to respond to law enforcement officers. So be sure to listen in for that. But first, the news. I'm thinking about shortening this transition or name of the segment just to the ews, as in yucky, like emphasizing the ew in ews going forward. Anyways, this is the mindset I am in. So apologies for all of the puns that might fall your way. But Somil and I are going to talk about several developments that at least mentally I've grouped into a few categories.
Straight up fascism, also efforts to fight back against said fascism. So little uplifting.
Then, corruption that is adjacent to and probably enables said fascism. And then, rising Christian nationalism as a cherry on top. As always, it's going to be a great time.

**Somil Trivedi** (4:11)
Yeah, I'm glad that some of that will be news you can use.

**Leah Litman** (4:16)
I'm glad you're into the rhyming and puns as well.
So with that, maybe let's just start with the straight up fascism and the freaks that are into it. And when I say fascist freaks, you say what? Harmeet, as in Harmeet, you are Hose Dillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, or as Melissa would say, Civil Wrongs. Anyways, Assistant Attorney General, you are Hose, announced that DOJ's Civil Rights Division will be sending around a thousand election monitors around the country, as you can hear here.