Welcome back to Making the Case! After a brief hiatus, Senator Whitehouse is back for a second season of his podcast, which uncovers the decades-long effort to capture and control our Supreme Court. During Trump 2.0, it’s more important than ever to shine a light on the nation’s highest court.

In this episode, Senator Whitehouse is joined by Professor Allison Orr Larsen and Professor Paul Collins, experts on amicus briefs and their (lacking) disclosure requirements.

Follow ⁠⁠⁠Senator Whitehouse⁠⁠⁠ ⁠on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram, and Facebook for all the latest updates on Making the Case.

Welcome to the new ‘wild, wild west’ of Supreme Court false fact-finding! (WANTED: A Supreme Court that doesn’t abuse the fact-finding process to reach the results it wants.)

In this episode of Making the Case, Senator Whitehouse is joined by Professor Allison Orr Larsen, an expert on judicial fact-finding at the William and Mary Law School. Some of the Supreme Court’s worst decisions, like Citizens United and Shelby County, got to their results by making stuff up. Following Senator Whitehouse’s recent article in the Ohio State Law Review, this episode unpacks how the Supreme Court‘s false fact-finding expeditions broke traditional rules to render decisions agreeable to the Court’s right-wing, special-interest benefactors.  

Follow ⁠@SenWhitehouse⁠ on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for all the latest updates on Making the Case. To read more from Professor Allison Orr Larsen, see the links below. 

Factual Precedents - Pennsylvania Law Review

The Trouble with Amicus Facts - Virginia Law Review

The Supreme Court justices seem to think so. The Court recently adopted a so-called “code of conduct,” but with no enforcement mechanism in place, it stands no chance of cleaning up bad behavior. Lisa Graves of True North Research joins Senator Whitehouse on this episode to unpack the new code and its shortfalls.

Also on this episode, Senator Whitehouse breaks down what happened in the Senate Judiciary Committee as Republican Senators unsuccessfully rolled out every play in the book to try to prevent the committee from subpoenaing the Court’s billionaire benefactors.

Follow ⁠@SenWhitehouse⁠ on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for all the latest updates on Making the Case, and⁠ @TheLisaGraves for more on her work to hold the powerful accountable.