Shows / Advisory Opinions
Advisory Opinions
Advisory Opinions is a legal podcast by The Dispatch. Hosts David French and Sarah Isgur meet twice a week to talk about the law, the courts, their collision with politics, and why it all matters.
Episodes
- Advisory Opinions
Bringing Charges Against the President’s Political Enemies
Sarah Isgur and David French zoom in on the cases prosecutors have brought against political enemies of the Trump administration. Then, they review the latest…
- Advisory Opinions
Election Shenanigans
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss election-related legal woes from New Hampshire to Alaska, election lawsuits and where they’re headed, plus a little…
- Advisory Opinions
Who’s the Loneliest Supreme Court Justice?
Sarah Isgur and David French go through a few orders from the Supreme Court (including one that’ll have our libertarian friends jumping from the second-story…
- Advisory Opinions
A Constitutional Crisis Over a Golf Course
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the legal battle between the Trump administration and the East Potomac Golf Course, a certiorari grant on race-neutral…
- Advisory Opinions
The Secrecy in Courts Dilemma
Sarah Isgur and David French are joined by Vince Chhabria, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and Stanford professor…
- Advisory Opinions
Is Spending Money Protected Speech?
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss what’s on the Supreme Court’s docket, debate whether anonymous speech is protected by the First Amendment, and undergo a…
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SUNCOR Gets Complicated
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the surprisingly complicated Suncor SCOTUS oral argument, Justice Samuel Alito and his AI usage, and circuit cases on…
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What Is Originalism? | Interview: Sherif Girgis
The new Supreme Court term has officially started, Sarah Isgur has returned from Down Under, and Sherif Girgis is taking a job at Harvard Law School. The vibes…
- Advisory Opinions
Not a MAGA Court
Elie Honig, CNN’s chief legal analyst, joins David French fresh off jury duty to discuss his piece for New York Magazine on how worried we should be about…
- Advisory Opinions
Is Press Access a Constitutional Right?
David French talks to CNN’s chief legal analyst, Elie Honig, at a time when CNN is in the news following President Donald Trump’s ban of the cable network from…
- Advisory Opinions
Third Time’s the Charm?
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the Missouri redistricting case now that the 8th Circuit has weighed in. Let’s stipulate that everything is a mess. Then…
- Advisory Opinions
Are Marijuana Contracts Legal in Federal Court?
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the upcoming “long conference” that marks the unofficial start to the new Supreme Court term, a prosecutor being referred…
- Advisory Opinions
Looking Ahead to the Supreme Court Term
From the SCOTUSblog Summit, Sarah Isgur, David French, and Amy Howe discuss the cases scheduled thus far for the Supreme Court’s upcoming term. The three…
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Barely Averting a Constitutional Crisis
Sarah Isgur and David French debate David’s latest New York Times column on the Missouri Supreme Court blocking a congressional map. Then, the two review two…
- Advisory Opinions
Insular Cases | Interview: Chief Judge Jeff Sutton and Neil Weare
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss Supreme Court updates on two cases: preferred advertising rates for political committees and Missouri’s congressional…
- Advisory Opinions
SCOTUS Majority Rules White House Ballroom Is A Go
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the 5-4 ballroom interim docket decision with Chief Justice John Roberts leading the dissenters, the New York Times with a…
- Advisory Opinions
Has the First Amendment Ever Been More Relevant?
Sarah Isgur and David French pick through a trail mix of topics for this week’s episode. The two discuss bracelet-wearing parents at a soccer game, student…
- Advisory Opinions
How to Fix Congress | Interview: Rep. Jake Auchincloss
Sarah Isgur and David French invite real life Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts to discuss how to reform Congress, explain multi-member districting, and…
- Advisory Opinions
Civility vs. Collegiality | Interview: Judges Tom Griffith and David Tatel
Sarah Isgur and David French invite former D.C. Circuit judges Tom Griffith and David Tatel to discuss relationships, judicial independence, and what it means…
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Let’s Pretend We’re Justices | Interview: Chris Scalia
David French and Sarah Isgur steelman Justice John Paul Stevens and Justice Stephen Breyers’s dissents in the Heller case through a one-act play produced by…
- Advisory Opinions
Trump’s Ballroom Blitz
Sarah Isgur and David French return, but with a little bit of a switcheroo as David takes the host’s chair. They discuss President Donald Trump’s appeal to the…
- Advisory Opinions
This Is Not A Vibes-Only Podcast
David Lat and Zachary Shemtob return as guest hosts and are joined by Adam Feldman, author of the blog Empirical SCOTUS and the Substack Legalytics, to discuss…
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SCOTUS’s October Preview
David Lat takes over the host’s chair and is joined by Zachary Shemtob, executive editor of SCOTUSblog, and Amy Howe, co-founder of SCOTUSblog, to discuss…
- Advisory Opinions
Fauci Pleads the Fifth | Interview: Elie Honig
Sarah Isgur and David French are joined by CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig to discuss Anthony Fauci’s invocation of the Fifth Amendment. Is it okay? Is it…
- Advisory Opinions
The Island of Rationality and the First Amendment
Welcome to First Amendment-a-palooza, where headliners Sarah Isgur and David French play the classics like: “Are license plates government speech?” and “Three…
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Receipts on the Senate Filibuster | Interview: Mike “Frags” Fragoso
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the Trump administration’s appeal to the Supreme Court about its mail-in voting executive order. Then the two talk with…
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Reviewing the Court’s Criminal Law | Interview: Rory Little and Orin Kerr
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss new data on questions that the Supreme Court justices are asking, dive into the definition of stipulation, and run through…
- Advisory Opinions
Alaska v. a Charter Plane and a Six-Pack of Beer
Sarah Isgur and David French explain a case in which an Alaskan charter plane was seized over a six-pack of beer and discuss Title IX due-process rights on…
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Defy the Gods
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss Messi flags and The Odyssey in 4D (not IMAX!) before diving into legal topics such as the politics at the Supreme Court…
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A Bucket Full of Trump Bait
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Justice Elena Kagan’s testimony in front of Congress, an Alaska Airlines forum argument…
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Plenty of Culture War Stuff
Sarah Isgur and David French preview the next Supreme Court term, discuss a dissent from a cert denial on defamation, and consider a few think pieces on the…
- Advisory Opinions
SCOTUS Vibe Check
Live from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C., Sarah Isgur and David French review the OT25 term with Akhil Amar, professor of law and…
- Advisory Opinions
Complicating the Polarization Narrative
Sarah Isgur and David French slow things down with an overview of the yearly Stat Pack released by SCOTUSblog, look at the dissents in the birthright…
- Advisory Opinions
It’s the End of the Term
SCOTUS strikes down a Donald Trump executive order ending birthright citizenship, reshapes campaign finance law, and rules that states can exclude transgender…
- Advisory Opinions
Supreme Court Weighs In on Unitary Executive Theory
Sarah Isgur and David French break down the latest Supreme Court opinions regarding unitary executive theory, mail-in voting, and the Fourth Amendment. The…
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Court Rules TPS Decisions Can’t Be Judicially Reviewed
Sarah Isgur and David French react to the latest opinions of the court in two major immigration cases and a review of Hawaii’s restrictions on concealed-carry…
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Enforcing International Law in U.S. Courts
Sarah Isgur and David French explain the various legal complications of the Iran MOU and react to the most recent opinions handed down by the Supreme Court…
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SCOTUS Rules on Illegal Drug Users Owning Firearms
Sarah Isgur and David French react to two new Supreme Court opinions on gun ownership while possessing illegal drugs and appeal waivers. The Agenda: —Drugs and…
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The Trump Administration's Internal Arguments Over Habeas Corpus
Sarah Isgur and David French break down the most recent cert grants out of the Supreme Court's order list and Trump's argument for suspending habeas corpus…
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Can Transgender People Serve in the Military?
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the three SCOTUS decisions that dropped Thursday morning, a D.C. Circuit decision on President Donald Trump's ban on…
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Counting Down the Supreme Court Term
Sarah Isgur and David French look at what’s left on the docket from this term before diving into a little Los Angeles mayoral politics. The Agenda: –Supreme…
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Getting Out of the Redistricting Business
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the Supreme Court’s Alabama redistricting decision, a plea deal from the former national security adviser, and the best…
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President Trump’s Losing Streak
Sarah Isgur and David French (he returns!) discuss the major Trump losses—Kennedy Center name change, motion on Trump v. IRS, and injunction on the slush…
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District Map Fights Before the 2026 Midterms
David Lat joins Sarah Isgur (see ya later, French) to discuss the three-judge panel overturning Alabama’s congressional maps, a new lawsuit against President…
- Advisory Opinions
SCOTUS Through the Decades | Interview: Nina Totenberg
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss an anticlimactic dig from the Supreme Court over IQ tests and the death penalty and challenges to the $1.8 billion slush…
- Advisory Opinions
All the Things Wrong with Trump’s Billion-Dollar Fund
Sarah Isgur and David French analyze President Donald Trump’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund through the lens of three legal “buckets,” and talk…
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Let’s Sue the Government
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the IRS lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump, SCOTUS’s mifepristone decision, and a unanimous verdict from the…
- Advisory Opinions
SCOTUS Clears Way for Alabama to Use Congressional Map
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the emergency docket ruling from SCOTUS on Alabama’s congressional maps, which broke down over three-justice ideological…
- Advisory Opinions
The TED Talk Heard ‘Round the World
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the Virginia State Supreme Court striking down the state’s new congressional maps, Neal Katyal’s TED talk that we don’t…
- Advisory Opinions
Congress Did Something!
Welcome to Callais-a-palooza, where Sarah Isgur and David French discuss Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court decision that struck down Lousiana's…
- Advisory Opinions
Justice Alito Stays Ruling on Abortion Pill by Mail
Justice Samuel Alito allows medical companies to continue administering the abortion pill Mifepristone after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered for it to…
- Advisory Opinions
Gutting the Voting Rights Act | Interview: Judge Roy K. Altman
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the decision in a racially challenged redistricting map case, weird indictments, and whether Israel is guilty of genocide…
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Arguing In Front of SCOTUS | Interview: Lisa Blatt
The inimitable Lisa Blatt joins Sarah Isgur and David French to discuss the two business docket cases named Cox and Chevron, a message to the judges and…
- Advisory Opinions
Overturning Religious Precedent
Will the Supreme Court overturn religious precedent in the case of a Catholic preschool challenging its exclusion from a Colorado “universal preschool”…
- Advisory Opinions
The Chief Justice Didn’t Hate President Obama | Interview: Gov. Kevin Stitt
Sarah Isgur and David French push back against the New York Times reporting on the birth of the shadow docket, discuss Justice Sotomayor’s apology after…
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There Is No Historic Defeat for Civil Rights
Sarah Isgur, on a whirlwind booktour, takes a break to deliver the legal goods with David French. The two discuss a Washington Post piece on civil rights data…
- Advisory Opinions
Sotomayor vs. Kavanaugh?
Sarah Isgur and David French revisit Stephen Colbert’s favorite case, take a look at a rare biting word about Justice Brett Kavanaugh from Justice Sonia…
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Trump’s ‘War Crimes’
Sarah Isgur and David French discuss President Donald Trump’s rhetoric over Iran, what constitutes a war crime, and what happens if a military officer fails to…
- Advisory Opinions
You’re Fired, Pam Bondi
Pam Bondi is no longer attorney general, Steve Bannon’s case is sent back to lower courts, and the Chiles decision on conversion therapy becomes nonpartisan…
- Advisory Opinions
Birthright Citizenship Oral Arguments
Sarah Isgur is joined by David French, Amanda Tyler, Akhil Amar, and SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe to react to the oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara, Donald Trump’s…