Looking Ahead to the Supreme Court Term

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: –What’s still to come 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. Amy Howe is a reporter at SCOTUSblog, based in Washington, D.C. Before SCOTUSblog became part of the The Dispatch in 2025, she worked for the blog as a reporter and as its editor. In her previous incarnation as a practicing lawyer, she argued two cases before the Supreme Court. When Amy is not covering opinions or emergency appeals at the Court, she is probably at the gym, the pool, or walking her two poodle mixes, (Michael) Jordan and (Dean) Smith. The podcast transcription below was generated using artificial intelligence and may include occasional errors or misspellings. Music 0:00 [keys jangling] Ready? Sarah Isgur 0:02 I was born ready Sarah Isgur 0:03 [instrumental music] Welcome to " Advisory Opinions." I'm Sarah Isgur. That's David French and Amy Howe from SCOTUSblog, and we are live at the 2026 SCOTUSblog Summit. [applause] [chuckles] We will be doing our traditional term preview, where we try to go through the cases that are scheduled thus far, but in a fun way, and not just a death march through the schedule. We'll see if we succeed in that. You will be the judge. Sarah Isgur 0:54 So, let's do this. Now, David, before we get into the cases, we got an actual decision from the Supreme Court on Trump's mail-in voting case. Let me read you the decision. "The government is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its challenge to the district court's preliminary injunction, and the equitable factors applicable for obtaining emergency relief from this court do not favor a stay." The end. David French 1:24 There's a lot to chew on there, Sarah. [chuckling with Sarah] Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio. Join Now More We Think You’d Like