Make America Grift Again

What It Covers

Strict Scrutiny hosts Leah Littman, Melissa Murray, and Kate Shaw examine the intersection of Supreme Court decisions and executive branch corruption, tracing how Citizens United enabled billionaire political dominance, how DOGE operatives dismantled federal programs without understanding their own mandates, and how ICE enforcement practices blessed by the Supreme Court's shadow docket are producing documented civil rights violations across Los Angeles.

Key Questions Answered

• •Citizens United's measurable legacy: Billionaire political spending shifted from roughly 0.3% of all federal election contributions in 2008 to 19% in 2024, with 300 billionaire families averaging $10 million each. Five dollars went to Republicans for every one dollar to Democrats. This asymmetry is historically new — wealthy donors previously hedged bets across both parties. Tracking this escalation provides a concrete framework for understanding how Supreme Court decisions translate into structural political power over time.
• •Regulatory capture pattern: Live Nation donated $500,000 to Trump's transition fund, hired lobbyist Kellyanne Conway, named Rick Grenell to its board, and retained MAGA-aligned lobbyist Mike Davis. The DOJ then settled an antitrust case mid-trial, capping state damages at under 1% of Live Nation's 2025 revenue. The antitrust chief departed just before the settlement. This sequence — donations, board appointments, lobbyist hires, favorable settlement — provides a replicable template for identifying regulatory capture in real time.
• •DOGE competency gap on record: Depositions from DOGE staffers in litigation over the National Endowment for the Humanities reveal operatives could not define DEI without referencing an executive order they also could not recall. Staffers used ChatGPT prompts asking whether grants involved DEI "from the perspective of someone looking to identify DEI grants." One staffer canceled a Holocaust women's history grant as DEI content. These depositions, made publicly available on YouTube by the American Historical Association, document decision-making processes that courts can evaluate.
• •Shadow docket racial profiling authorization: The Supreme Court stayed a district court order blocking ICE from making stops based on apparent race, ethnicity, language, or occupation without explanation. Justice Kavanaugh wrote separately, characterizing stops as short and respectful, ending when officers confirm lawful presence. Congressman Jimmy Gomez documents the practical result: constituents avoiding dialysis, children not attending school, and an eight-months-pregnant woman deported overnight without appearing in detention records — outcomes traceable directly to the court's unreasoned intervention.
• •Congressional oversight enforcement mechanism: A 2020 appropriations provision bars federal funds from blocking congressional surprise inspections of immigration detention facilities. When ICE denied access anyway, 13 members of Congress sued, won a temporary injunction, and eventually secured an expansion covering all 435 House members. The case demonstrates that statutory appropriations language, when litigated aggressively, can function as an enforceable oversight tool even against an administration that fabricates justifications for noncompliance at each procedural step.
• •State bar associations as accountability infrastructure: DOJ proposed a regulation allowing it to intervene in state bar disciplinary investigations of federal lawyers, including former employees, effectively diverting jurisdiction while conducting its own review. This targets an accountability mechanism that previously sanctioned lawyers involved in 2020 election challenges. Current targets include Deputy AG Todd Blanch, Third Circuit Judge Emile Beauvais, and former acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, who faces a bar complaint for unauthorized ex parte judicial communications during his Georgetown University DEI enforcement effort.
• •Tobacco industry tariff-for-regulation exchange: Altria Group and Reynolds American, both of which funded Trump's $300 million inaugural ballroom, lobbied the FDA to loosen flavored e-cigarette restrictions. The FDA subsequently issued guidance opening approvals for flavored vapes, including fruit and candy varieties previously restricted due to youth marketing concerns. ProPublica documents over 200 Trump appointees collectively holding $175–400 million in crypto assets while shaping crypto regulation, and Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg maintaining financial ties to firms seeking DOD missile interceptor contracts.