Is Spending Money Protected Speech?

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 –The problem with disclosure laws –A gruesome history of the death penalty Show Notes: 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 an ABC News contributor and the New York Times bestselling 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. [upbeat music] Sarah Isgur 0:19 Welcome to Advisory Opinions. I'm Sarah Isgur. That's David French, and we're going to check in on the Supreme Court, what's going on on the docket. We've got a new cert petition filed by the Trump administration and some interim docket items that are pending. How many times did the Supreme Court need to say it, circuit courts? More than once is clearly the answer, so we'll find out more about that. And the much-promised anonymous speech, is it protected by the First Amendment, isn't it? And what is exacting scrutiny coming out of the Ninth Circuit? Uh, and finally, Sarah Isgur 0:56 firing squads and televised executions. We end on a high note, uplifting our listeners with a pretty grim historical review on the death penalty. All that and more coming up on Advisory Opinions. Sarah Isgur 1:10 Okay, so David, we are recording this on a federal bank holiday that, as far as I know, has been, since its inception, always known as Columbus Day, despite the fact that I feel like a lot of people now no longer call it Columbus Day. Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio. Join Now More We Think You’d Like