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
What Were You Thinking?
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah are amazed by developments in the Sarah Palin trial, and they explain why. They discuss some excellent commentary on the…
- Advisory Opinions
Judge's Letter Fails to Disclose Conflict of Interest
On today’s episode, David and Sarah pop from topic to topic, including a discussion of a very strange letter, a brief foray into the Electoral Count Act, a few…
- Advisory Opinions
Supreme Court Restores Alabama Voting Map
It's a day of disagreement! David and Sarah walk through a critical Supreme Court voting rights case, and come out in a different place. They walk through the…
- Advisory Opinions
New Supreme Court Frontrunner?
On today’s episode, David and Sarah dive into multiple issues. Is Ketanji Brown Jackson still Biden's frontrunner? Also, she wrote her first D.C. circuit…
- Advisory Opinions
NFL Faces Racial Discrimination Lawsuit
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah talk about all aspects of Brian Flores's lawsuit against the NFL, with a deep dive into law and culture. They then turn to…
- Advisory Opinions
Electoral Count Act! Here We Go Again
On today’s episode, Sarah details yet another animal rescue because of course. Then David and Sarah dive into the Electoral Count Act and a mixed-up, messed-up…
- Advisory Opinions
Justice Stephen Breyer to Retire
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah respond to all the questions about Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement and replacement. Who are the leading candidates? Why…
- Advisory Opinions
Supreme Court to Hear Affirmative Action Challenge
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah celebrate 200 episodes with a discussion of two key college admissions cases the Supreme Court took up. Plus, they preview…
- Advisory Opinions
Maskgate at the Supreme Court
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah break down "Maskgate," the claim that Justice Neil Gorsuch refused to show basic courtesy to Justice Sonia Sotomayor by…
- Advisory Opinions
Amending the Constitution with Professor Levinson
On today’s episode, David and Sarah take a quick look at an intriguing cert grant at the Supreme Court and then dive into a fascinating discussion about…
- Advisory Opinions
Supreme Court Blocks Vaccine Mandate
It's an emergency podcast! (Well, at least in part). David and Sarah recorded a mailbag podcast Thursday morning, complete with fretting about when the Supreme…
- Advisory Opinions
Inside a Supreme Court Argument
On today’s episode, David and Sarah do a deep, deep dive into the vaccine mandate oral arguments at the Supreme Court. Sarah walks us through the HOP's…
- Advisory Opinions
Revisiting the Electoral Count Act
On today’s episode, David and Sarah start with a husband-of-the-pod update, debate a federal district court judge’s ruling temporarily granting more than two…
- Advisory Opinions
Welcome to the Goat Rodeo
David and Sarah talk about everything from COVID, to goat rescues, to the Supreme Court, to TikTok in this wide-ranging first pod of 2022. Do you wonder how…
- Advisory Opinions
Live from the Mayflower Hotel: An AO Holiday Special
On our last podcast of the year, Sarah takes you to the 2021 National Lawyers Convention at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., and introduces you to a…
- Advisory Opinions
Vaccine Mandate Reaches Supreme Court
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah dive back into vaccine mandates, as the CMS mandate for health care workers and the OSHA guidelines for private businesses…
- Advisory Opinions
Is the ERA part of the Constitution?
In today’s episode, Sarah and David discuss the Supreme Court's decision not to enjoin the New York vaccine mandate for health care workers and focus on a very…
- Advisory Opinions
Supreme Court Texas Abortion Law Ruling Said What?
If you woke up this morning thinking about Jussie Smollett, the Texas abortion law, California gun rights, and California vaccine mandates, then this is the…
- Advisory Opinions
Supreme Court Weighs Ban on State Aid to Religious Schools
David and Sarah have another action packed pod. First, the US Solicitor General weighs in on whether the Court should hear the case about whether Harvard’s…
- Advisory Opinions
Charging a School Shooter's Parents
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah discuss charges in Michigan against a school shooter's parents, the possible demise of a key Supreme Court precedent (not…
- Advisory Opinions
The End of Roe and Casey?
It's an almost-all-Dobbs podcast, as David and Sarah discuss the oral argument that surprised the nation. Could Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey…
- Advisory Opinions
Prior Restraint and Project Veritas
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah open with the puzzling case of Project Veritas and James O'Keefe. Why is a New York appeals court appearing to let stand a…
- Advisory Opinions
Understanding the Rittenhouse Verdict
On today’s episode, David and Sarah take a deep dive into the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict with Damon Preston, Kentucky's Public Advocate and a criminal defense…
- Advisory Opinions
The Insular Cases
On today’s show, David and Sarah bring Neil Weare, president and founder of Equally American, on the pod to teach us interesting things about the Constitution…
Advisory Opinions5th Circuit Extends Stay of Vaccine Mandate
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah dive into vaccine mandates, religious exemptions, and the Civil War. They analyze a recent court ruling blocking the Biden…
Advisory OpinionsSupreme Court Weighs Death Row Prayer Wish
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah talk to Erin Busby, Supreme Court co-counsel for John Ramirez in a critical death penalty religious liberty case. They walk…
Advisory Opinions5th Circuit Blocks OSHA's Vaccine Mandate
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah briefly preview key Supreme Court arguments before diving into the 5th Circuit's stay of the new Biden administration…
Advisory OpinionsNew York Gun Law Faces the Supreme Court
On today's episode, David and Sarah are on the road at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy on the campus of the University of Tennessee. Before a…
Advisory OpinionsSupreme Court Hears Texas Abortion Law Arguments
On today’s episode, David and Sarah react to the oral arguments in the Texas abortion law cases. The Supreme Court heard three hours of arguments in two…
Advisory OpinionsParental Rights in Public Schools
On today’s show, it's a battle of Generation X versus millennials versus Generation Z as Sarah and David shout, "You kids get off my lawn!" But before the…
Advisory OpinionsTexas Abortion Law Gets Supreme Court Date
On today’s episode, David and Sarah celebrate the Supreme Court finally bending to their will and then preview the upcoming oral arguments regarding SB 8, the…
Advisory OpinionsBiden’s Supreme Court Commission Part II
It’s weeping and gnashing of teeth for David in today's podcast as the Supreme Court deals a devastating blow to his dreams of abolishing qualified immunity…
Advisory OpinionsBiden’s Supreme Court Commission Said What?
What do court packers have in common with Hugo Chavez? Take a listen to this action-packed pod to find out. Sarah conducts a symphony of Supreme Court…
Advisory OpinionsThe Curious Case of Jailing Children
On today’s episode, we get a Supreme Court update from Sarah and not one but two entire Ted Talks from David. They cover a very obscure (yet interesting!)…
Advisory OpinionsJanuary 6 and Executive Privilege
It's executive privilege day on Advisory Opinions! After a brief update on the Texas abortion litigation, David and Sarah "dive right in" to a discussion of…
Advisory OpinionsManners Maketh a Pod
In today's pod David and Sarah discuss a federal district court injunction against Texas's heartbeat bill, dive into the deep waters of Mississippi's…
Advisory OpinionsSupreme Court is Back
On this week’s episode, Sarah is back from the Galápagos Islands just in time for the Supreme Court’s fall term. David and Sarah jump right in, starting with a…
Advisory OpinionsNerds with Strong Opinions
In a special edition of the podcast, David interviews his former colleague Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. The…
Advisory OpinionsEastman Memo: It's Real and It's Not Spectacular
In today’s episode, Sarah and David discuss a number of situations where events have proven their predictions true, starting with a challenge to the Texas…
Advisory OpinionsHow to Get Away with Interstate Mail Fraud
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah discuss a host of thorny legal issues starting with an indictment against a lawyer who lied to the FBI when he alleged…
Advisory OpinionsFuture of Biden's Vaccine Mandate
In today’s episode, Sarah and David give you everything you need to combat half-baked hot takes about the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate as they…
Advisory OpinionsAutomatic, Still Is
In today’s episode, Sarah and David discuss a fiery concurrence from Judge James Ho in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit’s opinion upholding a…
Advisory OpinionsSupreme Court's Texas Abortion Law Decision Explained
Late Wednesday night, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, refused to block a Texas abortion law that went into effect earlier in the day. Sarah and David…
Advisory OpinionsBen Folds Talks Creativity
For today’s episode, Sarah is joined by special guest Ben Folds, storied American singer-songwriter, musician, and podcaster. They discuss how failure is baked…
Advisory OpinionsThe Spirit of Curling
Mitchell Berman, professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School, joins our hosts for a fascinating discussion on the jurisprudence of…
Advisory OpinionsDucklings Have Come Home to Roost
In today’s episode, Sarah takes listeners along on a wildlife rescue mission that involves a baby turtle, a surprise rain storm, and mosquito netting. But…
Advisory OpinionsConstellations
On this episode, our hosts are joined by Matthew Barzun, an American businessman, diplomat, and longtime political fundraiser. Sarah and David dive into his…
Advisory OpinionsDefamation Law 101
In a jam-packed episode our hosts explore everything from vaccine passports on cruise ships to a shaky argument that eviction moratoriums violate the Third…
Advisory OpinionsFact, Fiction, and the Fight
In this episode, David and Sarah continue their August tradition of looking outside the world of legal nerdery with Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow at the…
Advisory OpinionsEviction Moratorium Faces Legal Challenges
In today’s episode, David and Sarah discuss the Biden administration’s flip-flop on extending the eviction moratorium and how it’s almost certainly an…
Advisory OpinionsWe’re Not Saying It’s Aliens, But...
Today on the pod, it’s a guest for whom David has been waiting for—Avi Loeb, an astrophysics professor at Harvard University who thinks it might just be…
Advisory OpinionsCompelled Speech and Religious Liberty
Could it be time for the Supreme Court to revisit Masterpiece Cakeshop? In today’s episode, David and Sarah discuss a ruling from the 10th Circuit requiring a…
Advisory OpinionsSwinging for the Fences on Abortion
On today’s pod, the discussion is (almost) all about abortion jurisprudence. After a brief look at Taking Offense v. California—a California Court of Appeal…
Advisory OpinionsAnd May it Please the Court
On today’s episode, David and Sarah talk about the recent Supreme Court term with Kannon Shanmugam, a Supreme Court litigant and a partner at Paul Weiss LLP…
Advisory OpinionsFirst Amendment Bonanza
It’s a First Amendment-themed pod today. First, David and Sarah discuss the city of Anaheim’s decision to cancel an America First rally with Matt Gaetz and…
Advisory OpinionsGuns, Avenatti, and Bathrooms
It’s an (almost) Supreme Court-free podcast episode today. First, David talks about a ruling from the 4th Circuit striking down federal prohibitions on adults…
Advisory OpinionsA New Way to View the Supreme Court
In today’s podcast, David and Sarah talk about the recent Supreme Court term and how Trump’s justices have changed the ideological makeup of the court. After…
Advisory OpinionsPeter Canellos Talks The Great Dissenter
After some brief thoughts about Trump’s lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter, and Google, Sarah and David chat with a special guest: Peter Canellos, editor at…
Advisory OpinionsBrutally Unfair, Legally Complicated
On today’s not-quite-emergency pod, Sarah and David have thoughts to share about the Supreme Court’s orders from last Friday. David discusses the ins and outs…
Advisory OpinionsWhy Bill Cosby is a Free Man
On today’s podcast, David and Sarah start with a discussion about Bill Cosby’s getting released from prison after his sentence was overturned by the…