Advisory Opinions

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 window), a CNN article on Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and two dueling en banc decisions from the 3rd Circuit.  –⁠Trigger warning for the libertarians⁠ –⁠Prisons must continue providing gender-affirming care⁠ –⁠Four justices recuse the...

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 admissions, and another on distilling booze at home. Finally, David asks Sarah about the Department of Justice’s hiring standards. The Agenda: –⁠Trump’s legal battle is par for the course⁠ –⁠Supreme Court agrees to consider federal ban on home...

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 Nora Engstrom to discuss the incredibly high number of motions granted to seal documents and the line between secrecy and protecting the public interest. They also discuss three new cases that  SCOTUS added to its oral argument docket a...

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 grim historical review of the death penalty after the Pentagon’s announcement that an execution will be livestreamed.  The Agenda: –Columbus Day discourse –Video rental records and boring 1980s movies –Suing Hillary Clinton –Disputes ove...

Sarah Isgur and David French discuss the surprisingly complicated Suncor SCOTUS oral argument, Justice Samuel Alito and his AI usage, and circuit cases on child sex abuse material, vaccine exemptions, and racial harassment.  The Agenda: –Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County –An appropriate use of AI by Justice Alito? –“I don’t think Justice Alito has DraftKings on his...

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 on today’s podcast are immaculate as Sarah and David discuss the long conference before Girgis joins them to discuss Justice Samuel Alito’s new book and his recusal from the biggest case of the term.  The Agenda: –42 pages of cert deni...

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 election challenges ahead of the midterms. The two also discuss the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision on third-country removals, do some level-setting on the civil lawsuit against Cornell University over an alleged gang rape, and participate in a Sta...

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 the White House. Honig takes us through CNN’s lawsuit seeking to regain access and the First Amendment argument media outlets are making. The two also discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Missouri redistricting case, and Sarah Isgur ma...

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, the two go through a few listener mailbag questions, including controversial school murals, marijuana law, and court packing.  The Agenda: –SCOTUSblog coverage on the redistricting case –India’s Supreme Court, standing doctrine, and sta...

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 to the Department of Justice for obstruction of justice, and a review of several circuit-court cases, including breaches of contract between marijuana-related businesses. Crime versus commerce reaches the courts.  The Agenda: –⁠Hello Ju...

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 discuss the most consequential case for the Trump administration, David throws in a Star Wars reference (at the behest of Sarah!), and Amy answers the most important case question correctly.  The Agenda: –Decision handed down in Trump’s mail...

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 law articles: Andy Smarick of the Manhattan Institute’s elegantly simple piece on unenumerated rights, and University of Virginia law professor Caleb Nelson’s amazing yet horrifying publication on the unitary executive.  The Agenda: –Pay...

Sarah Isgur and David French discuss Supreme Court updates on two cases: preferred advertising rates for political committees and Missouri’s congressional districts. Then, Judge Jeff Sutton, chief judge of the 6th Circuit and No. 1 AO judicial crush, and Neil Weare, co-director of Right to Democracy, join to discuss insular cases and where birthright citizenship stands after Trump v. Barbara.&nbsp...

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 piece on releasing the justice’s papers sooner rather than later, and a piece by Josh Morrow on AI in circuit decisions. And speaking of circuit decisions, Sarah and David discuss a few, including the Vacancies Reform Act and the 26th Amend...

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 visas being revoked over bad speech, and classified information being printed. But they kick it off with a big “Sarah got it wrong.”  The Agenda: –Sarah got it wrooooooong –Breaking news and the mail-in ballot decision –Pentagon leaks and...

Sarah Isgur and David French invite real life Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts to discuss how to reform Congress, explain multi-member districting, and wtalk about hether the Supreme Court needs more justices. But first, forging Justice John Robert’s signature and fake arresting teenagers.  The Agenda: –Bad criming –Even if a judge is in judges robes, they’re not always a judge –All the...

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 to be a “former” judge. But first, bar complaints and the White House ballroom injunction.  The Agenda: –⁠The worst of the worst, District Judge edition⁠ –Someone file a bar complaint! –⁠We’re the least surprised when the White House i...

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 ChatGPT. The two also invite Chris Scalia to play the majority opinion writer (and his late father) Justice Antonin Scalia.  The Agenda: –One act, three justices –What AI got right and wrong –Justice Breyer, fully vindicated –Shul is Yidd...

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 Supreme Court on the construction of a White House ballroom, a religious liberty case about permits and prayer services, and a bit of reality TV litigation.  The Agenda: –We can all laugh about this one day –Pierre Charles L’Enfant for...

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  an update on birthright citizenship, some new polling about SCOTUS,  and Luigi Mangione, who will soon be tried for the murder of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson.  The Agenda: –Where in the world are Sarah and David? –The De...

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 Justice Samuel Alito’s retirement plans (not yet), President Donald Trump’s new executive order targeting birthright citizenship, and hot cases in the upcoming October term.  The Agenda: –Sarah Isgur’s rebuttal –Justice Alito’s back! (He ne...

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 not okay? How does this relate to the pardon power? Then it’s on to a constitutional game show where  each member of this three-person team picks two constitutional amendments they would magically ratify and one amendment they would veto.&n...

Welcome to First Amendment-a-palooza, where headliners Sarah Isgur and David French play the classics like: “Are license plates government speech?” and “Three cheers for Citizens United,” as well as “Owning a copy of Mein Kampf means you’re an idiot, but it’s still private speech.”  The Agenda: –Immigration issues –Citizens United will be overturned –Gender, protected speech, and school couns...

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 ⁠Mike Fragoso⁠, former chief counsel to then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and partner at Torridon Law, to discuss the food truck nature of Senate judicial nomination.  The Agenda: –⁠Additional restrictions on mail-in voting⁠ – ⁠...

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 a few questionable subpoenas of reporters. All this before the crime-apalooza interview with University of California law professor Rory Little and Stanford law professor Orin Kerr. You won’t want to miss their discussion on torture. No, th...