Supreme Court process, explained with care.
SCOTUStalk follows the Supreme Court through procedure as much as headline rulings. Amy Howe speaks with guests about emergency orders, Section 230, Munsingwear vacatur, term previews, and the craft of arguing before the justices.
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SCOTUStalk approaches the Supreme Court through the work that happens around the bench: briefing, argument, emergency orders, procedural doctrine, journalism, and term-by-term case selection. It is court coverage with a practical legal spine. Amy Howe’s conversations tend to begin by defining the issue, then move toward why the issue matters inside the court’s own rules. That gives the show a different texture from general politics coverage. An episode on the shadow docket starts from the court’s emergency appeal process and follows the criticism that major legal movement can happen through short unsigned orders. A Section 230 conversation uses the Google and Twitter arguments to examine text, policy concerns, and the justices’ comfort with technology. The Munsingwear episode stays close to vacatur, lower-court decisions, and the question of whether criteria have shifted without the court saying so directly. The SCOTUS Spotlight interviews add a craft layer. Daniel Geyser discusses opening statements and preparation. Kannon Shanmugam and Roman Martinez compare Supreme Court advocacy with appellate argument elsewhere, emphasizing sharper answers, more interruptions, and the pressure of the full court. The show also includes institutional memory, as in the conversation with Marsha Coyle about years of court reporting, book writing, and watching the Roberts Court change. Term-preview episodes bring that same method to major disputes, including affirmative action, abortion, guns, and other high-profile questions. SCOTUStalk is not trying to make the court simple. It makes the court legible. Its best use is for listeners who want to understand how Supreme Court law is argued, processed, reported, and sometimes reshaped before the opinion headlines arrive.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants Supreme Court coverage grounded in procedure, advocacy, and institutional context. It also fits people who follow major cases but want help understanding how the court gets there.
What sets it apart: SCOTUStalk stands out by putting oral advocacy and procedural machinery at the center of the story. Similar shows may track outcomes; this one often lingers on how arguments are built, how orders work, and how court watchers read the institution.
SCOTUStalk is a nonpartisan podcast about the Supreme Court for lawyers and non-lawyers alike, brought to you by SCOTUSblog. SCOTUStalk is hosted by Amy Howe and produced and edited by Ellena Erskine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · August 2026
SCOTUStalk turns Supreme Court procedure and courtroom craft, including the shadow docket and oral advocacy, into plain interview-driven explanation.
SCOTUStalk approaches Government from inside the building, treating the Supreme Court less as a headline generator and more as an institution with its own procedures, personnel, and craft.
You want the Court explained before midnight orders become tomorrow's group chat emergency.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A focused look at how the Supreme Court's emergency orders can shape law beyond its usual process.
The Supreme Court's emergency appeals process comes into sharper view through the Court's refusal to block Texas SB8, the short unsigned order that made the so-called shadow docket newly visible to many people outside regular Court-watching circles.
A clear, focused guide to the court's Section 230 questions and who should decide the statute's future.
SCOTUS Talk gives Section 230 a brisk, useful legal workout through the Google and Twitter arguments, with Amy Howe and Megan Ioria tracing the tension between preserving the internet's current operating rules and reading the statute through text and history.
Dan Geiser explains how Supreme Court advocates prepare, open, persuade, and keep perspective under pressure.
SCOTUS Talk turns Dan Geiser's Supreme Court experience into a practical look at oral advocacy, with the strongest focus on what changes when a lawyer moves from a circuit-court panel to the high court.
An obscure vacatur practice becomes a sharp look at the Supreme Court's quiet role in erasing consequential lower-court decisions.
SCOTUS Talk makes Munsingwear vacatur feel less like procedural housekeeping and more like a quiet test of how much power sits inside brief Supreme Court orders.
A veteran Supreme Court reporter links career memory to a changed view of the Roberts Court.
Marsha Coyle's long Supreme Court beat becomes a quieter story about how a reporter learns an institution from the inside. She traces the route from a college newspaper to the Harrisburg state house, with the old Underwood manual typewriter serving as a neat bridge to the…
Political history, caught on tape.
David Roberts interviews energy and policy experts on grids, solar, geothermal, and climate law.
Amy Howe talks with Stephen Vladeck on SCOTUS Talk about the Supreme Court's "shadow docket," a term Will Bode coined in 2015 for orders, stays, cert denials, and other rulings outside the merits docket.
Section 230 was Congress's response to a specific problem: how to reward "Good Samaritan" content moderation without punishing it.
SCOTUS Talk, produced by SCOTUSblog and hosted by Amy Howe, talks with Dan Geiser, head of Supreme Court practice at Haynes and Boone, about Supreme Court oral advocacy.
SCOTUS Talk's Amy Howe interviews Lisa Tucker and Stephanie Lindquist about Munsingwear vacatur, the procedure that can wipe a lower-court decision when a case becomes moot.
SCOTUS Talk interviews Marsha Coyle about more than three decades covering the Supreme Court for the National Law Journal and PBS NewsHour.
Host Amy Howe previews the upcoming Supreme Court term with legal experts Morgan Ratner and Jamie Santos, discussing high-profile cases including affirmative action.
Interview with Supreme Court advocate Cannon Shanmugam discussing differences between arguing in the Supreme Court and courts of appeals.
Interview with Supreme Court litigator Roman Martinez discussing differences in arguing before the Supreme Court versus lower courts.
This episode discusses the confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and other Supreme Court news with expert guests.
Amy Howe discusses the Supreme Court's upcoming blockbuster term with veteran reporter David Savage, covering cases on race in admissions, redistricting, and Justice Breyer's retirement.
Hosts discuss the Supreme Court's Long Conference and the certiorari process for selecting cases.
Amy Howe interviews CNN's Joan Biskupic about her exclusive interview with Justice Stephen Breyer regarding his retirement plans and other Supreme Court news.