Third Time’s the Charm?

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: –India’s Supreme Court, standing doctrine, and stagnation –The Rohrabacher–Farr Amendment and David being wrong –Sarah’s favorite sentence and Judge Jeff Sutton –Rage bait: Congress is maybe not the problem –How many justices is too many? 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 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 [handcuffs clinking] 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, and oh my God, we're gonna try to break down the Missouri redistricting case Sarah Isgur 0:28 for the third time, because it's going to the Supreme Court for the third time. So the first time, we didn't cover it enough. The second time, maybe we did, but it doesn't matter because now the Eighth Circuit has weighed in. The Eighth Circuit has entered the chat. Okay, so we will do that, and then we have got some amazing listener questions, including my favorite line that has ever been in a listener email. But we've got questions on standing, on marijuana, on what would actually happen if we made the Supreme Court 15 seats, and a mural that has been in that middle school for 10 years. Can they paint over it? All this and more on Advisory Opinions. Sarah Isgur 1:08 All right, David, before we get to the mailbag, we do have some Supreme Court news to do. [chuckles] I can't believe we're still doing this, but Missouri's redistricting map is headed up to the Supreme Court for the third time. Now, we are taping this on Wednesday afternoon. Justice Kavanaugh has asked for briefing. Within minutes, David, it is due. In fact, uh, by my clock, they currently have 22 minutes left, uh, to file their briefs. Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio. Join Now More We Think You’d Like