rich 1.0 It’s been a long summer, but Leah, Kate and Melissa are back together to break down the biggest cases and legal battles coming to the Supreme Court this term. Starting in October, the justices will hear challenges involving AR-15s and semi-automatic rifles, religious exemptions for schools receiving government funding, and the latest redistricting fights in Missouri and the 8th Circuit. Plus, Trump’s big arch updates and allegations that a government contractor illegally funneled nearly $200,000 to a Susan Collins super PAC. Then, Melissa sits down with National Association of Black Journalists President and Crooked’s Long Play cohost Errin Haines to discuss news outlets suing the President over press access. After, Leah talks to Columbia graduate and activist Mahmoud Khalil about the administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech and the treatment of people in ICE custody. Favorite Things: Leah: ProPublica (https://www.propublica.org/) | Gil Duran, Nerd Reich; Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor End Times Fascism (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIfX5qHorBQ) | Alyssa Edwards’ response (https://www.reddit.com/r/rupaulsdragrace/comments/1wokvmq/alyssa_edwards_responds_to_ken_paxton/) to Ken Paxton Kate: Daniel Immerwahr’s How to Hide an Empire (https://bookshop.org/p/books/how-to-hide-an-empire-a-history-of-the-greater-united-states-daniel-immerwahr/c8aca5f688b118f5) | Ari Berman and Pema Levy in Mother Jones on Callais and the New New Jim Crow (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/09/supreme-court-jim-crow-voting-rights-act-history-cleo-fields-louisiana-callais/) | Nikole Hannah-Jones’s NYT Piece (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magazine/ny-public-schools-black-students-segregation.html) Melissa: Propublica’s piece on Susan Collins (https://www.propublica.org/article/fbi-susan-collins-navatek-campaign-donations-investigation) |  Charles Spencer, Swan Song (https://bookshop.org/p/books/swan-song-diana-my-sister-charles-spencer/e87a70d6d838f0e6?ean=9798217566679&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=dsa_nonbrand&utm_content=%7Badgroupname%7D&utm_term=dsa-19959388920&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=12440232635&gbraid=0AAAAACfld42BkY2ibdLSm9u0unEq6qVXs&gclid=Cj0KCQjwt9jVBhDXARIsAFSP-6cnnKCWJfnllhKWpEQJxqfcaei_zLrZbduvt1Bec-Ihko-VLHfZyKkaAkqQEALw_wcB) | Raphael Warnock, The Crooked Parts Made Straight (https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-crooked-places-made-straight-reflections-on-the-moral-meaning-of-america-raphael-g-warnock/1011fa4bd18abd5f?ean=9798217058983&bkshp-astro=t) | Zak Cheney-Rice, No One Can Fix School Segregation Alone (https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/school-segregation-hannah-jones-essay-education-reform.html) | Stacey Abrams at LCCR Gala (https://www.lawyerscommittee.org/lawyers-committee-for-civil-rights-under-law-honors-stacey-abrams-and-mississippi-voting-rights-plaintiffs-at-2026-higginbotham-leadership-awards-gala/) Take the Strict Scrutiny survey (https://crooked.com/strictsurvey) . New Strict merch available here (https://store.crooked.com/products/were-gonna-need-a-bigger-court-graphic-t-shirt) . 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 http://crooked.com/strict_cleGet tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE on November 6th in Washington, DC: Crookedcon.com (http://crookedcon.com/) Buy Melissa’s book, The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader (https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-constitution-annotated-for-the-contemporary-reader-melissa-murray/8e7f0dfa472fc3ca?ean=9781668221938&next=t&) Buy Leah’s book, Lawless (https://bookshop.org/p/books/lawless-how-the-supreme-court-runs-on-conservative-grievance-fringe-theories-and-bad-vibes-leah-litman/5b562d6fcb316d6e?ean=9781668054642&next=t) , now out in paperback Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/strictscrutinypodcast/?hl=en) , Threads (https://www.threads.net/@strictscrutinypodcast) , and Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/strictscrutiny.bsky.social) For a transcript of an episode of Strict Scrutiny please email transcripts@crooked.com Strict Scrutiny https://audioboom.com/channels/5166629-strict-scrutiny Audioboom https://audioboom.com 480 95 https://audioboom.com/i/43408246/600x600/c 600 600 <iframe width="100%" height="95" src="https://embeds.audioboom.com/posts/8957698/embed?v=202301" style="background-color: transparent; display: block; padding: 0; width: 100%" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="allowtransparency" scrolling="no" title="Audioboom player" allow="autoplay" sandbox="allow-downloads allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>