Advisory Opinions
Advisory Opinions is a new podcast from The Dispatch. Hosts David French and Sarah Isgur have a weekly conversation about the law, culture, and why it matters.
Episodes
June 7, 2024 • 70 mins
No Rahimi decision yet … but Sarah and David have the next best thing: math! The two dive into Sarah’s recent POLITICO piece in which she and Dean Jens used data to analyze the Supreme Court.
The Agenda:
—The three-body problem
—Was Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization radical?
—Moneyballing the court
—“Right to counsel” at the 9th Circuit
—Racial discrimination in contracting
—Test cases are test cases
—Judge Newsom’s “unu...
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June 4, 2024 • 66 mins
Sarah and David detail Hunter Biden’s legal predicament and discuss the impact it will have on the political landscape. Is this coercive bargaining in action?
The Agenda:
—Food poisoning etiquette
—Hunter Biden's federal case
—Prosecuting Donald Trump
—Abortion opinion out of Texas Supreme Court
—Insights into the Supreme Court’s decision-making process
—SCOTUS watch
Show Notes:
—Steve Calabresi for the Volokh Conspiracy
—Sarah's p...
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May 31, 2024 • 75 mins
Akhil Amar, Sterling Professor of Law at Yale University, joins Sarah and David to read between the lines of the Constitution to find and define unenumerated rights. Be sure to check out his books, America's Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By and The Words that Made Us: America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840. And stick around after the interview for a brief Alito flag update.
—Akhil Amar’s tw...
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May 31, 2024 • 36 mins
In an emergency live dispatch, Sarah and David discuss the historic verdict in Trump's New York hush money case. Expect to hear sentencing expectations, appeal efforts, and how voters will reach.
Show Notes:
-Mike and Sarah’s Collision newsletter on the outcome of the case
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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May 23, 2024 • 72 mins
Sarah gives us a taste of her interview with retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer before she and David dive into the latest SCOTUS ruling on racial gerrymandering.
The Agenda:
—Justice Breyer and the Major Questions Doctrine
—Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP
—Conduct vs. speech and Morgan Wallen’s Nashville bar
—Random swipes at text, history, and tradition from David
—Approving a SCOTUS nominee fro...
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May 21, 2024 • 76 mins
Is Justice Alito a secret election denier? Is his wife chronically online? Were these allegations the point of a New York Times article about hanging the American flag upside down? Or is this a nothingburger? Sarah and David discuss.
The Agenda:
—Appearances of impropriety
—Husbands: What would you do if someone called your wife the C-word?
—Asserting executive privilege over audio recordings
—No, Zina Bash did not make a white pow...
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May 16, 2024 • 65 mins
Do judges have an important role to play in society beyond judging? Judge Lee Rudofsky takes the affirmative, while Orin Kerr disagrees in this special AO episode debating this topic. Sarah and David also discuss the latest SCOTUS cases.
Show Notes:
—Judges write letter saying they won't hire law clerks from Columbia
—Kerr: Do Judges "Have an Important Role to Play in Our Society" Beyond Judging?
—Code of Conduct for United States ...
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May 14, 2024 • 63 mins
Sarah and David start things off with a discussion of Trump’s trials and how he might respond to the outcome of the election. Are David’s concerns overblown?
The Agenda:
—Trump’s New York trial
—Chilling speech over anti-Israel protests and one law school dean's private dinner party
—Mocking Michael Cohen
—Civil forfeiture SCOTUS ruling
—AYER ruling
—When prison guards shave a Rastafarian's dreads
—Firing gay teachers
Show Notes:
—...
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May 9, 2024 • 74 mins
Eleventh Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom takes over the role as professor to teach Sarah and David the implications of jurisdiction stripping and the balance of power between the branches of government. We’ll sum the lesson up as … Congress, do your job.
The Agenda:
—Judges say they won’t hire from Columbia Law School
—Explaining the exceptions clause
—Constraints over jurisdiction stripping by Congress
—Marbury powers
—Congress taking ...
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May 7, 2024 • 79 mins
Judge Edmund Sargus from the Southern District of Ohio joins Sarah and David to take on originalism and different means of constitutional interpretation.
The Agenda:
—Brown v. Board of Education and the different judicial philosophies that can be applied to the case
—Originalism vs. common law traditionalism
—Challenges and limitations of textualism and originalism
—Landmark cases and the Supreme Court’s decisions shaping societal ...
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May 2, 2024 • 62 mins
It’s a silent spring in Texas as Pornhub pulls out of the state in an act of protest over a law requiring age verification measures. Sarah and David go through the legal battle between the explicit site and Texas AG Ken Paxton.The Agenda:
—Sarah’s high
—Texas law requiring age verification to access pornography online
—The tiers of scrutiny in constitutional law
—The role of text, history, and tradition
—Going through the Antisemit...
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April 30, 2024 • 95 mins
David returns after a brief food poisoning hiatus to discuss two oral arguments heard before the Supreme Court: Trump’s immunity case and Idaho’s case on abortion bans. But first, a request from The Dispatch’s resident Wilson-hater.
The Agenda:
—Are solo podcasters sociopaths?
—Proposals for changes on the Israeli Supreme Court
—Absolute immunity for presidents
—The role of the executive vesting clause
—Reviewing Idaho’s abortion b...
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April 26, 2024 • 53 mins
The Supreme Court this week heard oral arguments for Donald Trump’s immunity case, and David has thoughts. However, he was too sick to join today so Sarah had to go solo (Ruminant style!), recapping the legal and political implications of the case, assessing the strength of the arguments and their significance for the future of our political system, and trying to imagine where we go from here in this bizarre election cycle.
The Age...
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April 23, 2024 • 83 mins
Sarah and David discuss oral arguments in Grants Pass v. Johnson, a Supreme Court case addressing the issue of homeless people camping on public property, as well as and the 4th Circuit ruling that blocked West Virginia's law blocking transgender athletes from participating in sports.
The Agenda:
—SCOTUS hears Grants Pass v. Johnson
—Necessity defense and cannibalism
—4th Circuit ruling on trans sports ban in West Virginia
—SCOTUS ...
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April 18, 2024 • 67 mins
There’s not much worth discussing yet in Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York, so Sarah and David focus on the Supreme Court and a case on Idaho’s law restricting gender-transition treatment for minors. Plus: Murmurs about Clarence Thomas’ brief absence.
The Agenda:
—Election law crimes, tax crimes, and falsification of business records
—Challenges of broad injunctions
—Idaho’s Vulnerable Child Protection Act
—SCOTUS exhausted...
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April 16, 2024 • 70 mins
Co-authors Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer join the podcast to discuss their book, After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency, and the need to reform presidential power. But first, a protest and a dinner party at a Berkeley Law School dean's house. Did the location qualify as a public forum? Sarah and David evaluate.
The Agenda:
—Dean of Berkeley Law School and a Palestinian Protest: 1A protection?
—How to go about civil disobedience
...
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April 11, 2024 • 80 mins
Sarah and David explain the jury questionnaire in Alvin Bragg’s case against Donald Trump before getting into the weeds of the origins of originalism.
The Agenda:
—How to select a jury for Trump
—Celebrity trial jury instructions
—Biden swings again at student loan forgiveness
—Did the Warren court birth originalism?
—Originalism vs. platonic idealism
—More questions from a high schooler
—How do judicial ethics actually work?
—The ...
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April 9, 2024 • 81 mins
Things get heated in Trump’s classified documents case. In a court filing this week in Donald Trump’s classified documents case, special counsel Jack Smith challenged Judge Aileen Cannon by vowing to appeal any decision that included the Presidential Record Act in jury instructions. David and Sarah discuss Smith's public move and what it means for the case.
The Agenda:
—Sarah's recaps her defamation law musical experience
—Justice ...
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April 4, 2024 • 76 mins
Sarah and David dive into two op-eds challenging the Federalist Society and the call for lawyers to uphold the tradition of liberty under law.
The Agenda:
—Mayfield v. Butler, retaliation, and political targeting
—Risks and challenges facing the Federalist Society
—Did Trump-era advances in jurisprudence come at a deep civic cost?
—The Thomas’ article on the judicial filibuster
—Will Peter Navarro’s attempts to evade jail time succ...
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April 2, 2024 • 83 mins
Federal Judges Roy Altman, Lee Rudofsky, and Amul Thapar join Sarah and David to discuss their recent trip to Israel along with 11 other federal judges that focused on the question of the day: Is Israel complying with international law as it pursues its war against Hamas in Gaza?
The Agenda:
—The purpose of the judges’ trip
—Walking through the locations of the October 7 attack
—Gruesome tactics by Hamas
—Military authority in Isra...
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