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Sometimes we hear from listeners, “You three make me feel less alone.” Or, “You three make me realize I’m not paranoid. They really are coming after our democracy and our rights!”
It’s not that we necessarily like hearing these things (we’d prefer if our democracy and our rights weren’t so up for grabs). But since that’s kind of where we are, we do like being able to provide a kind of community for people who care about law, politics, and society, and the relationship between them. We want smart, conscientious people to be able to reach other people, and convince them to care about law, democracy, and everything in between, too.
And if we’re being honest, we need that community, too. It’s so nice to be surrounded by a group of well-meaning, fun, motivated people who want to fight for our democracy, our laws, our rights, and our courts. It’s way better than doomscrolling through the latest Supreme Court opinion, shadow docket nonsense, or oral argument transcript.
Which is why we are beyond excited to be hitting the road more in the coming SCOTUS term. DC, we’re coming back at you: We had such a great time with a crowd that cheered (cheered!) for Chevron deference, administrative agencies, and federal government workers that we’re going to be back in DC at Crooked Con [ [link removed] ] on November 7, where we’ll break down the oral arguments in the tariff cases being argued earlier in the week at the Supreme Court. (If the President is going to descend on SCOTUS for the occasion, we will too! Although in fairness, we did say we’d be there first…)
We’re also (finally!) able to announce…some West Coast stops on (the never-ending) Bad Decisions Tour [ [link removed] ]. When we named the tour the Bad Decisions Tour, we weren’t trying to manifest—really.
So, San Francisco and Los Angeles—we’ll be there in March! Specifically, March 6th in San Francisco and March 7th in Los Angeles. It’s been difficult with our teaching schedules/full-time jobs to be able to find a time when we could all get to the West Coast, and we’re thrilled to finally be able to make this happen. We’re not trying to follow ICE and the National Guard around the country (or maybe they’re following us?), but between Chicago, DC, and LA…there is kind of a pattern.
In any case, we are SO excited to be able to see and meet more of you soon.
Sometimes on the podcast we throw out the phrase “popular constitutionalism.” It’s a term that just describes popular invocations—people’s invocations—of the constitution. It describes when people and popular movements make claims about the constitution and what it means—claims that don’t depend on what silly justices of the Supreme Court do or don’t say. It’s when people insist the constitution doesn’t require the president to have immunity and impunity for interfering with the peaceful transition of power following a legitimate election (even when the Supreme Court says otherwise). It’s when people insist that they have a First Amendment right to criticize their government and not be prosecuted or lose federal benefits for it. It’s when people insist the Reconstruction Amendments don’t allow legislatures to gerrymander voters out of power (again, even when the Supreme Court says otherwise).
We think popular constitutionalism matters. Maybe it won’t yield returns today or tomorrow. But it’s an important and enduring mechanism for constitutional change. (Not a “just the tip” kind of change.) And we can’t wait to be in community with our fellow popular constitutionalists.
See you soon DC, San Fran, and LA!
Strict Scrutiny presale tickets (for March 6 in SF and March 7 in LA) go live October 28 at 10am PT. For access, use the code: DISSENT. General sale starts October 30 at 10am PT.
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