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 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. The Agenda: –Our first Olympian guest –Background on insular cases Order Sarah’s book here. 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 [rattling] Ready? Music 0:02 I was born ready. [rock music playing] Sarah Isgur 0:19 Welcome to Advisory Opinions. I'm Sarah Isgur. That's David French. We've got a few Supreme Court updates for you, both on preferred advertising rates for political committees and Missouri's congressional districts. The Supreme Court has weighted on both, and one of them's a mess. But then we have a wonderful conversation for you on the Insular cases, and after Trump v. Barbara, the birthright citizenship case, where birthright citizenship stands in a special little case coming out of Alaska. To join us for that conversation is Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit and number one Advisory Opinion judicial crush, Judge Jeff Sutton, and Neal Wier, who is the co-director of Right to Democracy. He was, uh, raised in Guam. And by the way, David, fun fact, he ran in the 2004 Olympics for Guam, the 1,500-meter dash. People may not know this, but the American territories can have their own Olympic teams, including their own soccer team. You can compete in Miss Universe. You don't have to be an independent country to have your own Olympic team. So I'm just saying, Texas, what if [laughs] we had our own Olympic team? That'd be really fun. Um, he also, by the way, he's been on our podcast before, David. Um, and for those who are, like, into the very deep cuts, his wife was besties with husband of the pod back at Purdue. Sarah Isgur 1:55 And so I basically consider her like another sister-in-law, which makes Neal- Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio. Join Now More We Think You’d Like