What Does Peak Fascism Look Like?

Huge news for lawyers: You can now listen to Strict Scrutiny for CLE credits in California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington, and Oregon! More info at crooked.com/strict_cleLeah is joined by guest co-host Somil Trivedi, advocacy director & senior counsel at Court Accountability, to run through last week’s legal news, which involves a whole lot of straight up fascism, the corruption that enables it, and the rising tide of Christian nationalism. They also ask the important questions: Who’s the richest SCOTUS justice? And…what exactly is Trump babysitter Natalie Harp’s whole deal? Then Melissa sits down with Jesse Wegman for a conversation about his book, The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution (bookshop.org/p/books/the-lost-founder-james-wi…).
Favorite Things:

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Leah: The Natalie Harp (nytimes.com/2026/08/18/us/politics/natalie-har…) saga; The Five-Star Weekend (peacocktv.com/stream-tv/the-five-star-weekend) (Peacock); Lost Weekend (open.spotify.com/album/2NSzwyYvQvdOQAoEjrlw9c), Phoebe Bridgers; He Was Deported to a Country He’d Never Heard Of. He May Never Go Free (nytimes.com/2026/08/12/magazine/deportation-im…), Nicholas Casey (NYT); Kate’s conversation (youtu.be/nQg4iZQm9YM?si=P63-HKJTf29AF0c5&t…) with Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer about their book, On Courage (bookshop.org/p/books/on-courage-how-to-be-a-di…); The Wrong Kind of American (theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/10/trump-white-h…), Julia Curlee (The Atlantic)

• Somil: Lost Weekend (open.spotify.com/album/2NSzwyYvQvdOQAoEjrlw9c), Phoebe Bridgers; Frozen Charlotte (open.spotify.com/album/0VV4lddlDaShTgEzohQ7Jj), Jack White

Follow us on Instagram (instagram.com/strictscrutinypodcast/?hl=en), Threads (threads.net/@strictscrutinypodcast), andBluesky (bsky.app/profile/strictscrutiny.bsky.social)Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.com (crookedcon.com)Buy Melissa’s book,The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader (bookshop.org/p/books/the-constitution-annotate…;)Buy Leah’s book, Lawless (bookshop.org/p/books/lawless-how-the-supreme-c…), now out in paperback
Follow us onInstagram (instagram.com/strictscrutinypodcast/?hl=en),Threads (threads.net/@strictscrutinypodcast), andBluesky (bsky.app/profile/strictscrutiny.bsky.social)For a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email transcripts@crooked.com