Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts · October 31, 2026 · 47 min

DOJ’s Groundwork for Midterm Mayhem

The Trump administration has sued to potentially block certification of a Senate race in Alaska, threatened California election officials with jail time, and challenged the voter rolls in 30 states. They've lost almost all of those cases. So with a few days to go before the midterms, should we still be worried? Dahlia is joined by Ari Berman , Mother Jones national voting rights correspondent and author of Minority Rule and Give Us the Ballot , to walk through the legal state of play heading into Election Day. They cover the Alaska Senate race lawsuit, the California ballot-segregation case, the threat of election-day ballot seizures and poll intimidation, and the Supreme Court's likely role if disputed elections land on its doorstep. They also discuss a source of hope: Black voters across the South are surging to the polls, driven by the Roberts Court’s attack on voting rights in its recent Callais decision, turning a ruling designed to suppress their votes into the most powerful mobilizing force of the cycle. Plus, Amicus Plus members get a bonus episode with Madiba Dennie on this week’s Epstein file revelations, new GOP threats to judges who rule against Trump, and a major religious liberty case headed to SCOTUS. Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify . Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.