Why is SCOTUS Hoarding Opinions?

**Leah Litman** (0:00)
Strict Scrutiny is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The Trump administration's excessive Christian nationalist rhetoric is only building as we move toward the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Those most caught in the crossfire are federal workers, specifically a multi-faith group of federal employees filed a new lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture for violating the separation of church and state and their religious freedom promised in our constitution.
Our friends at Americans United for Separation of Church and State received emails from multiple USDA employees. A handful of employees reached out, saying the proselytizing Easter email sent by Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke L. Rollins, to more than 100,000 USDA employees is an abuse of power that violates a separation of church and state promised in the First Amendment. They are absolutely right. We've tried to explain to these guys before. You can overrule lemon and call it abandon all you want. The first sentence of the First Amendment still says, no establishment of religion.
The hits just keep on coming from this administration, and Americans United is doing their best to keep up the fight against Christian nationalism. If you want to help, head to au.org/crooked to learn more about their work and how you can get involved.
Every weekday, NPR's best political reporters come to you on the NPR Politics Podcast to make sense of the biggest news from Washington and beyond. They don't just tell you what happened, they explain how decisions made in Washington could affect you from gas prices and affordability to elections and other issues shaping your community. Listen every afternoon to the NPR Politics Podcast.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:35)
Mr. Chief Justice, please report. It's an old joke, but when an argument argues against two beautiful ladies like this, they're going to have the last word.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:48)
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.

**Melissa Murray** (2:21)
My court captured.

**Leah Litman** (2:23)
My rights shattered.

**Kate Shaw** (2:25)
My democracy still alive. Nix in five.

**Melissa Murray** (2:35)
Hello, New York City.
Happy Juneteenth to all who celebrate. And a very special Juneteenth to all who do not celebrate. And yes, I'm looking at you, Pete. Sam. Clarence.

**Leah Litman** (3:02)
Marco.

**Melissa Murray** (3:03)
JD. Mark Wayne, No Spaces.

**Kate Shaw** (3:06)
Okay, okay. I'm going to stop you there, Melissa, because we cannot name the entire cabinet, the entire Supreme Court. We celebrate Juneteenth and we are Strict Scrutiny, your podcast about the Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. We are your hosts.
I'm Kate Shaw.

**Melissa Murray** (3:24)
I'm Melissa Murray.

**Leah Litman** (3:25)
And I'm Leah Litman. And we are delighted to be here. And so appreciative of the big parade you threw for us two days ago.
We hear a million people showed up, so thanks.

**Kate Shaw** (3:39)
Really, we are so excited to be here in New York for another live show. It's going to be a great one. No thanks to the Supreme Court.
Listeners, audience members, we had to work to ring a show out of the pittance that the Supreme Court gave us last week.

**Melissa Murray** (3:56)
Yes, that's right, folks. We are literally a week away from July, and this court still has 17 cases that it has not yet issued. These are not little cases, these are big cases. The Birthright Citizenship case, the TPS case, the Independent Agencies cases, the ban on trans athletes cases, absentee ballots are so much more. These folks are literally quiet quitting.
And they had the nerve to quiet quit the week that we had a live show in New York. The absolute audacity of them.

**Kate Shaw** (4:36)
I am going to float a theory. As the eternal optimist in our trio, is it possible that the court held off on dropping the biggest and the worst decisions of the term to allow all of us to experience just a few more days of unfettered, NICS induced joy?
I think it's possible.

**Melissa Murray** (4:59)
No, Kate.

**Leah Litman** (5:00)
No, Kate, not possible.

**Melissa Murray** (5:02)
Wrong answer, Kate.

**Leah Litman** (5:04)
Yeah.

**Kate Shaw** (5:04)
Just asking.

**Leah Litman** (5:05)
Yeah, as the non-optimist, I will float another theory. Maybe issuing consequential terrible bad decisions within a week of a White House cage match and an unconditional surrender and humiliation on the world stage at Versailles, of all places, would be just a little too much.

**Melissa Murray** (5:26)
I'm going to go with they are trying to starve us of content.