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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Annelie Geissler

LAWLESS

Leah Litman

How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes

Something is deeply rotten at the Supreme Court. How did we get here and what can we do about it? Crooked Media podcast host Leah Litman shines a light on the unabashed lawlessness embraced by conservative Supreme Court justices and shows us how to fight back.
With the gravitas of Joan Biskupic and the irreverence of Elie Mystal, Leah Litman brings her signature wit to the question of what's gone wrong at One First Street. In Lawless, she argues that the Supreme Court is no longer practicing law; it's running on vibes. By "vibes," Litman means legal-ish claims that repackage the politics of conservative grievance and dress them up in robes. Major decisions adopt the language and posture of the law, while in fact displaying a commitment to protecting a single minority: the religious conservatives and Republican officials whose views are no longer shared by a majority of the country.

Dahlia Lithwick's Lady Justice meets Rebecca Traister's Good and Mad as Litman employs pop culture references and the latest decisions to deliver a funny, zeitgeisty, pulls-no-punches cri de coeur undergirded by impeccable scholarship. She gives us the tools we need to understand the law, the dynamics of courts, and the stakes of this current momenteven as she makes us chuckle on every page and emerge empowered to fight for a better future.

Leah Litman is a professor of law at the University of Michigan and a former Supreme Court clerk. In addition to cohosting Strict Scrutiny, she writes frequently about the Court for media outlets including The Washington Post, Slate, and The Atlantic, among others, and has appeared as a commentator on NPR and MSNBC, in addition to other venues. She has received the Ruth Bader Ginsburg award for her "scholarly excellence" from the American Constitution Society and published in top law reviews. Follow her on X @LeahLitman and Instagram @ProfLeahLitman.
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Published 2025-05-13 by One Signal

Comments

Leah Litman has long been the voice willing to say aloud what every other lawyer is thinking; the person prepared to fearlessly name some stunt or trick behind which the courts tend to hide bad behavior. With Lawless, Litman uses her sharp wit and sharper mind to build a bridge between a mystified supreme court and an American public that absolutely knows something is horribly awry at the high court, but can't put a name to it. This book is for everyone who wants to understand how the Roberts Court betrayed its mission and our values, and -- perhaps more urgently -- why they did so. (spoiler: it was the vibes).

Leah Litman has long been a brave and brilliant corrective to the sanctimony around the Supreme Court, someone with insider experience and deep knowledge who is actually willing to tell it like it is. This breezy yet authoritative explainer of the bad faith reasoning, extreme ideology, and shady tactics that characterize today's Court majority will ably arm readers for what's to come.

Lawless by Leah Litman is a sharp and stellar READ of the Supreme Court. The power and corruption of the conservative Supreme Court Justices affects us all, and Leah's work leaves you fired up yet empowered to pay attention, ready to resist, and frankly, hotter.