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 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: –Paying tribute to the victims and those who sacrificed their lives on 9/11 –The redistricting fight that favors Democrats in Missouri Advisory Opinions is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a non-partisan, conservative perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including access to all of our articles, members-only newsletters, and bonus podcast episodes—⁠click here⁠. If you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠. Sarah Isgur is a senior editor at The Dispatch and is based in northern Virginia. Prior to joining the company in 2019, she had worked in every branch of the federal government and on three presidential campaigns. She’s also a ABC News contributor and the author of Last Branch Standing, a deep dive into the inner workings of the Supreme Court. When Sarah is not hosting podcasts or writing newsletters, she’s probably sending uplifting stories about spiders to Jonah, who only pretends to love all animals. David French is a columnist for the New York Times. He’s a former senior editor of The Dispatch. He’s the author most recently of Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation. The podcast transcription below was generated using artificial intelligence and may include occasional errors or misspellings. Music 0:00 [keys jangling] Ready? Music 0:02 I was born ready. [upbeat music] Sarah Isgur 0:21 Welcome to Advisory Opinions. I'm Sarah Isgur. That's David French. We will start with September 11th and some of the things that Justice Kavanaugh said while reflecting on that day in the White House, and some of the reactions to what Justice Kavanaugh said reflecting on that day in the White House, as well as I will pick a fight with David over the redistricting shenanigans in Missouri. And we've got two articles, one by Andy Smarick on text, history, and tradition, and the three questions judges should ask if they wanna do it right, as well as a unitary executive take-down by conservative professor Caleb Nelson, who says, "Oh, you wanna do originalism? Can I introduce you to the Necessary and Proper Clause?" And then we've got that Second Circuit case on the teachers with the pride flags in their classroom. Is this like Kennedy v. Bremerton? Is it like that bookcase out of the Ninth Circuit? What are these teachers allowed to have in their classroom, and why does this feel like every case we are doing right now? David's got feelings on Garcetti and Pickering again. All this and more coming up on Advisory Opinions. Sarah Isgur 1:30 All right, David, let's start with some news that happened on September 11th. First of all, we continued our tradition of bringing all of the Briskets' classmates to a fire station nearby and dropping off goodies and treats and cards. But David, this was a new fire station [laughs] this year for September 11th, obviously, 'cause we're in Texas. This station had real fire poles. And I don't know if you've actually seen firefighters respond to a call in, like, real time, but we're there, a call comes, there are four fire poles situated in this firehouse. Men start streaming down poles. Um, like it was raining men in a literal sense. David French 2:12 [laughs] Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio. Join Now More We Think You’d Like