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
Supreme Court: We’re Not Santa Claus
Sarah and David return for a truly prolific episode covering another SCOTUS decision day and revisit where they stand on originalism and its faults. The…
- Advisory Opinions
Justice Stephen Breyer: Law Is Not a Science
In a special live recording from San Francisco in late May, Sarah interviewed former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer about his judicial philosophy, the…
- Advisory Opinions
Rahimi Is Here and It Is Glorious
The Supreme Court has decided 8-1 in favor of the government in United States v. Rahimi. Sarah and David break down the decision before getting to a few…
- Advisory Opinions
Squirrely Religious Expression
Awaiting a week full of emergency pods, Sarah and David discuss latest round of SCOTUS opinions and take a look at a religious expression case. The Agenda…
- Advisory Opinions
Living Anachronism
Sarah and David discuss how the media’s focus on outcomes ignores the Supreme Court’s complexity and restraint. Plus: tips for the lawyer ready to quit. The…
- Advisory Opinions
The Consensus Court
David Lat takes over the guest chair and joins Sarah to discuss recent SCOTUS decisions. The Agenda: —SCOTUS bumps bump stock case to Congress —Lily Ledbetter…
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Offensive T-Shirts Get Their Day in Court
Sarah and David discuss the laws of war in response to Israel’s successful hostage rescue operation in Gaza before turning to the latest First Amendment drama…
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The 3-3-3 Body Problem
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…
- Advisory Opinions
Will President Biden Pardon His Son?
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?…
- Advisory Opinions
The Rights the Constitution Doesn’t Tell You About
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…
- Advisory Opinions
Indictment Watch Live: Trump's Guilty Verdict
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…
- Advisory Opinions
On Racial Redistricting
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…
- Advisory Opinions
When to Recuse
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…
- Advisory Opinions
Should Judges Get Political?
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…
- Advisory Opinions
Presidential Stakes
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?…
- Advisory Opinions
Class in Session: Jurisdiction Stripping
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…
- Advisory Opinions
Originalism v. Common Law
Judge Edmund Sargus from the Southern District of Ohio joins Sarah and David to take on originalism and different means of constitutional interpretation. The…
- Advisory Opinions
Tears of Scrutiny
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…
- Advisory Opinions
Pressing the SCOTUS Panic Button
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…
- Advisory Opinions
Indictment Watch: Supreme Court Hears Trump’s Immunity Case
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…
- Advisory Opinions
Lady Law and Homeless Encampments
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…
- Advisory Opinions
Retire Universal Injunctions
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…
- Advisory Opinions
The Enormous Powers of the President
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…
- Advisory Opinions
Real Originalism Has Never Been Tried
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…
- Advisory Opinions
Jack Smith Scolds Judge
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…
- Advisory Opinions
The Federalist Society in Peril
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…
- Advisory Opinions
Federal Judges Examine The Israel-Hamas War
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…
- Advisory Opinions
What the Abortion Pill Case Is Really About
Sarah and David discuss the legal arguments and media spin around the Mifepristone abortion pill case. The Agenda: —Mifepristone at the Supreme Court —SCOTUS…
- Advisory Opinions
Judge Cannon's Clerkship Problem
In this double-guest special, David Lat shares his original reporting on the exodus of Judge Aileen Cannon’s clerks and its implications for Trump's classified…
- Advisory Opinions
Into the Labyrinth (of Texas Immigration Law)
Sarah and David dive into the battle (one that at times stumps our resident SCOTUS wonks) between the 5th Circuit and the Supreme Court on Texas’ deportation…
- Advisory Opinions
Can State Officials Block Me on Social Media?
Sarah and David discuss Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s opinion in Lindke v. Freed—released last week by the Supreme Court—and the test for state action on social…
- Advisory Opinions
Blood Libel at MIT
Sarah and David react to the Robert Hur’s congressional testimony, but first Sarah responds to a recent article that claimed she was assisting Hur in his…
- Advisory Opinions
Stopping the Stop Woke Act
Despite a slow start to the week in legal news, Sarah and David have a tightly packed episode today starting with a dissent from denial from Justice Thomas on…
- Advisory Opinions
David Responds to Trolls
David takes the first ten minutes to respond to Twitter trolls over his latest New York Times article before he and Sarah revisit their arguments over the…
- Advisory Opinions
Indictment Watch: The Supreme Court Decides Whether States Can Disqualify Trump
The Supreme Court issued an unanimous decision on Monday dismissing efforts to block Trump from the Colorado ballot. Sarah and David review the ruling and then…
- Advisory Opinions
Sore Losers and Dr. Phil
Sarah and David have some legal catch-up to do but first on the docket is some rank punditry on Donald Trump's endless legal saga. The Agenda: —Why is there a…
- Advisory Opinions
Live from Alabama
Former U.S. Assistant Attorneys General Stephen Boyd and Jody Hunt, as well as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Prim Escalona join Sarah…
- Advisory Opinions
Taylor Swift and the Magna Carta
Judges Jennifer Elrod and Charles Eskridge join Sarah and David to explain the “inns” and outs of a special networking group for attorneys. The Agenda: —SCOTUS…
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Alabama Against IVF
Sarah and David dive into an Alabama Supreme Court case designating embryos as minors and explain how this might affect abortion policy at large. The Agenda…
- Advisory Opinions
Guns and the Aloha State
Do people have a right to gun ownership even if it conflicts the “spirit of Aloha”? Sarah and David dig into a 53-page opinion from the Supreme Court of Hawaii…
- Advisory Opinions
Ignore the Gaslighters on the Hur Report
Memory issues, ghost writers, and presidential prosecutions. Media outlets are cherry picking bits and pieces from the Hur Report on Biden’s handling of…
- Advisory Opinions
Do Your Job ... SCOTUS
Sarah and David cover the oral argument at the Supreme Court regarding the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to block Trump from the ballot in the state. The…
- Advisory Opinions
Indictment Watch: No Immunity
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously decided that Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution. On today's emergency pod, Sarah and David react to…
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The Problem With Multidistrict Litigation
Sarah and David invite District Judge Vince Chhabria on the pod to explain the state of multidistrict litigation and answer the question: Why does he listen to…
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Reading the Founders’ Minds
Judge John K. Bush of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals joins Sarah to discuss the method and merits of the "history and tradition test." But first, Sarah and…
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Why Our Border Is Broken
Sarah and David dive deep into the state of immigration law and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's legal battle with the Biden administration. The Agenda: —Amicus briefs…
- Advisory Opinions
What Is Religion?
Sarah and David discuss ~vibes~ from a recent emergency docket ruling on razor wires along the Texas border plus Judge Newsom's latest concurrence on…
- Advisory Opinions
Big Law Has a Liberal Bias (Live from Vanderbilt University)
Sarah and David brave the tundras of the Vanderbilt campus to discuss left-leaning bias in pro-bono cases before diving into the details of Fulton County DA…
- Advisory Opinions
Bad Facts for Chevron
Sarah and David appease a couple listeners’ requests before getting to the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo oral argument. The Agenda: —Words of the day…
- Advisory Opinions
Dumb But Constitutional
Sarah and David discuss a cert grant relating to homelessness in San Francisco and Massachusetts’s Eighth Amendment. But first, Sarah announces her pending…
- Advisory Opinions
The Presidential Assassination Argument
Sarah and David address a few corrections from Tuesday’s episode before turning to the oral argument on Trump’s prosecutorial immunity. On the Agenda: —Can…
- Advisory Opinions
En Bonkers Opinion
Sarah and David attend to AO housekeeping before diving into some creative 20th Amendment theories. Plus: —The distinction between law violation and norm…
- Advisory Opinions
Getting Things Back In Order
David and Sarah are back from a hearty break and catch up on cases from last year and various legal topics, including judicial salaries and the death of…
- Advisory Opinions
2023 Year In Review And 2024 Predictions (With David Lat)
Sarah joins David Lat's Original Jurisdiction to review 2023's best (and worst) legal cases and lawyers and make some hopeful (and less hopeful) predictions…
- Advisory Opinions
Colorado Court Blocks Trump from '24 Ballot. Now What?
In this emergency pod, Sarah and David discuss the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to disqualify Donald Trump from the state’s primary and general election…
- Advisory Opinions
Another Dobbs Leak!
Sarah and David respond to listener comments about last week’s Texas abortion case. Then the two discuss: -Why to bet on the side of Jack Smith’s delay -The…
- Advisory Opinions
Is Donald Trump 'Absolutely Immune'?
Sarah and David give listeners another action-filled pod, starting with a controversial abortion case in Texas before breaking down special counsel Jack…
- Advisory Opinions
Clients Don't Always Listen
It's a marathon episode as Sarah and David try to figure out: -Will WilmerHale charge the university presidents for their testimony prep? -Is the ACLU making a…
- Advisory Opinions
Students Call for Genocide, Presidents Smirk
The university presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn testified before Congress on antisemitism in their schools. It didn’t go well. Sarah and David talk Title…
- Advisory Opinions
Bionic Judges
Judge Kevin Newsom of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals joins Sarah and David to reminisce on past times and talk nerdy topics. Let Judge Newsom explain his…