DAHLIA LITHWICK

Dahlia Lithwick is a Canadian-American lawyer, award-winning journalist, and author covering law and politics in the United States. Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, she moved to the United States to study at Yale University, where she earned her BA in English. She went on to earn her JD from Stanford Law School, then worked in a family law firm before finding her calling in legal journalism.

As senior editor at Slate magazine since 1999, she writes about courts and the law in her columns, "Supreme Court Dispatches" and "Jurisprudence." As host of the podcast "Amicus," she discusses the law and the nine Supreme Court justices who interpret it for the rest of America. The biweekly podcast has become one of the most respected sources for in-depth analysis of Supreme Court decisions and their impact on American life, earning multiple awards and a devoted following among lawyers, law students, and engaged citizens.

She has received multiple accolades for her work, including the Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism in 2018, which noted that she "has been the nation's best legal commentator for two decades." She won a National Magazine Award in 2013 for her columns on the Affordable Care Act and has been twice honored with an Online Journalism Award for her legal commentary.

In 2018, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2021, she received the Women's Media Center's Exceptional Journalism Award. That same year, she won a Gracie Award for "Amicus Presents: The Class of RBG," which featured the last in-person audio interview with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

In 2022, she released her book "Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America," celebrating the female lawyers, judges, and activists who used the rule of law to challenge the racism, sexism, and xenophobia of the Trump administration. The book became an instant New York Times bestseller and received widespread critical acclaim. Through vivid storytelling and unparalleled access to her subjects, Lithwick profiled women like Sally Yates, who refused to sign off on the Muslim travel ban; Becca Heller, who brought the fight over the travel ban to airports; Roberta Kaplan, who sued the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville and later represented E. Jean Carroll in her defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump; and Stacey Abrams, whose voting rights work in Georgia helped reshape American politics. The book serves both as a chronicle of resistance during the Trump years and as a celebration of the women who defended democratic institutions and the rule of law.

Dahlia has held visiting faculty positions at the University of Georgia Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and the Hebrew University Law School in Jerusalem. She was the first online journalist invited to be on the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, a distinction that recognized her pioneering role in bringing Supreme Court coverage to digital platforms. She has testified before Congress about access to justice in the era of the Roberts Court and how the #MeToo movement impacts federal judicial law clerks. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Harper's, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and Commentary, among other publications.

In recent years, Lithwick has become increasingly vocal about the transformation of the Supreme Court and the challenges facing American democracy. Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the 2022 Dobbs decision, she has written extensively about reproductive rights and the Court's willingness to overturn longstanding precedent. She has also been at the forefront of coverage regarding judicial ethics, particularly after ProPublica's revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas accepting undisclosed gifts and travel from wealthy benefactors. In a notable 2023 column, she candidly acknowledged that she and her colleagues in the Supreme Court press corps had failed to adequately report on judicial ethics violations, focusing too narrowly on legal opinions rather than on the Court's inner workings and outside influences.

Her analysis of the Court has evolved to encompass not just legal reasoning but also the institutional legitimacy crisis facing the judiciary. She has documented how justices have become more openly partisan, more willing to call each other out in opinions, and more aggressive in asserting the Court's power over other branches of government.

During the 2024 presidential election and the early days of the second Trump administration, Dahlia focused her coverage on the legality of executive orders and the role of the judiciary in checking executive power. She has become a regular analyst on network news programs where her ability to explain complex legal issues in accessible terms has made her one of the most trusted voices in legal journalism.

As a sought-after speaker, Lithwick has appeared at law schools and conferences across the country, including a 2024 visit to Duke Law School where she reflected on 25 years of covering the Supreme Court. She advised students to "do the thing that fills you up," sharing her own journey from practicing law to finding fulfillment in journalism. Her message to young lawyers emphasizes that career paths need not be linear and that contributing to democracy can take many forms—whether through litigation, journalism, activism, or public service. Through her writing, her podcast, and her public appearances, Dahlia Lithwick continues to serve as both a chronicler of American law and a champion for those who use the legal system to advance justice and protect democratic values.