Know Your Enemy: Trump 2.0 and the Courts

Know Your Enemy: Trump 2.0 and the Courts

Matt and Sam talk to the hosts of the 5-4 podcast about how Trump can remake the federal judiciary—and perhaps the broader justice system—during his second term.

Know Your Enemy is a podcast about the American right co-hosted by Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell. Read more about it here. You can subscribe to, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher, and receive bonus content by supporting the podcast on Patreon.

It’s been a while since we’ve had our friends from the 5-4 podcast on Know Your Enemy, and we thought there was no better time to do so than the weeks before Donald Trump is inaugurated, again, as president. As listeners might guess, we wanted to talk to them about what opportunities Trump might have during his second term to reshape the federal judiciary—and perhaps a lot more than that, if he can secure the confirmations of Kash Patel at the FBI and Pam Bondi as attorney general. Topics include: Joe Biden’s successes, and failures, when it comes to the courts, and what he’s handing off to Trump; what kind of judges Trump is likely to appoint; if there’s a MAGA wing of the conservative legal movement now, akin to Project 2025 or the America First Policy Institute; whether Justice Alito is a Fox News uncle or an OAN uncle; and more.

Further Reading:

Myah Ward and Betsy Woodruff Swan, Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship could be decided by the Supreme Court, Politico (2024)

Pema Levy, How Much More Radical Could the Supreme Court Become? Look to the Fifth Circuit. Mother Jones (2024)

Michael Hall, Is James Ho Too Brash for Even Trump to Make Him a Supreme Court Justice? Texas Monthly (2024)