David French and Sarah Isgur break down Supreme Court arguments and rulings twice a week.
Advisory Opinions is a law-and-politics conversation built around Supreme Court arguments, statutory fights, and the institutional habits of judges. It moves quickly from doctrine to dinner-table asides, treating legal reasoning as both civic work and entertainment.
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Advisory Opinions is a legal-analysis podcast produced by The Dispatch, built around a running conversation between two co-hosts rather than a rotating guest format. David French, a lawyer and columnist, and Sarah Isgur, a former DOJ spokesperson turned Dispatch editor, open most episodes with a grab bag of legal news before working through one or two cases in depth. The recurring subject matter is the Supreme Court's docket: oral arguments, emergency-docket rulings, vote splits, and how individual justices like Kagan, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Jackson, Alito, and Barrett reason through a case. A second recurring thread follows executive power and its limits, covering topics like the unitary executive theory, military law and unlawful orders, immigration detention, and redistricting under the Voting Rights Act. Constitutional scholar Akhil Amar appears often enough to be treated as a running voice on originalism and the Fourteenth Amendment. The show occasionally interviews sitting judges, such as newly confirmed Seventh Circuit judge Rebecca Taibleson, and has recorded episodes live at university speaker series, including a Dartmouth event on constitutional anxiety across the branches. Isgur's book, Last Branch Standing, and her related media appearances come up as a recurring self-referential thread in some episodes. The tone throughout is argumentative but collegial, with the hosts frequently disagreeing on judicial norms, statutory interpretation, or how a ruling should be read. Listeners who already follow Supreme Court news will get the most out of it, since episodes assume familiarity with case names, procedural posture, and recurring legal doctrines. Production is a straightforward two-host conversation with occasional third-party interview segments, released on a regular twice-weekly schedule.
Made for: Listeners with an existing interest in constitutional law and Supreme Court proceedings, including lawyers, law students, and politically engaged news followers who want case-level detail rather than headline summaries.
What sets it apart: Pairs a practicing lawyer and a former DOJ spokesperson in a running two-host debate format, with recurring input from constitutional scholar Akhil Amar and occasional sitting-judge interviews, rather than a single-host explainer or rotating-guest format common to other legal podcasts.
Advisory Opinions is a legal podcast by The Dispatch. Hosts David French and Sarah Isgur meet twice a week to talk about the law, the courts, their collision with politics, and why it all matters.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Sarah Isger and David French make judicial reasoning legible without sanding away the doctrine, disagreement or political consequences.
Advisory Opinions turns consequential legal disputes into an energetic conversation between Sarah Isger and David French. Supreme Court arguments and decisions provide the center of gravity, while the discussion reaches executive power, First Amendment conflicts, election…
Statutes get read before headlines get believed, with room for Afro Man and judicial exclamation points.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A brisk legal-politics episode on corporate personhood, Sotomayor and Kavanaugh, circuit nominations, and court-culture oddities.
Advisory Opinions treats a busy legal news docket as both argument and inside conversation. Sarah Isger and David French open with Last Branch Standing's book-tour momentum before turning to Stephen Colbert's use of Santa Clara County, corporate personhood, and why Citizens…
A sharp legal-political conversation about American power, international law, and the fragile usefulness of the UN.
Trump's 'War Crimes' finds Advisory Opinions doing what it does best: turning a grab bag of legal and political news into an argument about institutions.
A brisk legal politics roundtable whose strongest section is the free-speech fight over conversion-therapy laws.
Advisory Opinions opens with a legal-news grab bag: Pam Bondi's removal, Steve Bannon's apparently shaky conviction, Trump's Easter message, Iran, and a detour on exclamation points in the Trump ballroom case.
A sober post-argument read on birthright citizenship and what the justices' questions may signal.
Advisory Opinions turns the birthright citizenship argument into a careful read of a case many expected to look easier for the challengers than it sounded at the Court.
A brisk First Amendment roundup with a grounded turn into life as a new circuit judge.
Advisory Opinions spends this episode on a cluster of First Amendment disputes, starting with Olivier v. Brandon, where a street preacher challenges an amphitheater's free speech zone after being arrested outside it.
A brisk legal-politics read on redistricting, emergency docket math, immigration detention, and courtroom candor.
Advisory Opinions opens with the Supreme Court's handling of California redistricting, framed as a response to Texas and as a test of how racial gerrymandering claims get sorted when partisan power is also plainly in the mix.
A brisk legal-politics roundup with Supreme Court process, election fights, circuit splits, and Isger-French skepticism in the foreground.
Quasi-Hypotheticals is Advisory Opinions in roundup mode: quick, lawyerly, and a little allergic to easy narratives. Sarah Isger and David French tee up Don Lemon's arrest and whether journalism changes the legal analysis, then range across Trump nominee statistics, election…
A live Dartmouth episode on the Supreme Court, executive power, and why blaming judges alone misses the separation-of-powers fight.
Advisory Opinions takes its Supreme Court conversation to Dartmouth, where Sarah Isger and David French frame 2026 less as a narrow court-watching exercise than as a fight over separation of powers.
David Roberts interviews energy and policy experts on grids, solar, geothermal, and climate law.
Sarah Isger and David French open with Justice Sotomayor’s public comment about Justice Brett Kavanaugh, then argue over whether a justice should criticize another justice outside an opinion.
Sarah Isger opens Advisory Opinions by saying her book Last Branch Standing comes out Tuesday, with The View on Tuesday, Morning Joe on Wednesday, and Bill Maher on April 24.
Pam Bondi has been removed from office.
The argument did not sound like a wipeout.
This episode discusses recent Supreme Court oral arguments on mail-in ballot deadlines and other legal issues, including qualified immunity and border metering.
A First Amendment merit badge is on trial.
Hosts David French and Sarah Isgur discuss Supreme Court cert grants, temporary protective status cases, and interview Judge Stephanos Bibas on judicial humility and the Federal Public Defender's Office.
Hosts discuss two legal cases: one on public accommodation laws and discrimination, another on First Amendment rights for first graders, with analysis of Supreme Court trends.
Hosts discuss Supreme Court clashes, upcoming oral arguments on Takings Clause and Confrontation Clause cases, and a book donation program.
Hosts introduce a crossover episode with other legal podcasts to discuss substantive due process and announce listener fundraising for the Supreme Court Historical Society.
Hosts discuss Supreme Court oral arguments on gun rights, election redistricting, parental rights, and the War Powers Resolution.
Hosts discuss the legality of US interventions in Iran, a historical Supreme Court case, and a Q&A session about James Madison.
Hosts discuss the State of the Union, Supreme Court justices' attendance, and various legal immunities.
Hosts discuss recent Supreme Court tariff decisions, the Ten Commandments case, and controversy over justices attending the State of the Union.
This emergency podcast episode analyzes the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision striking down President Trump's authority to issue tariffs under AIPA, covering the majority opinion, dissents, and concurrences.
Hosts David French and Sarah Isgur discuss legal issues and their intersection with politics, with a live audience at SMU.
This episode of Advisory Opinions discusses the Department of Justice's failed attempt to indict six Democrats for allegedly urging military personnel to refuse illegal orders, with analysis from hosts Sarah Isger and David French.
California redistricting opens the fight.
A brisk cold open starts the docket.
"Ready?
This episode covers the TikTok sale compliance with the ban-or-sale law, Minneapolis shootings legal issues, circuit court cases on Second Amendment and qualified immunity, and advice for a nine-year-old aspiring lawyer.
Hosts discuss legal differences between two Minnesota shootings, Fourth Amendment issues, and a dissent in a redistricting case.
Hosts discuss Supreme Court arguments on President Trump's removal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and other legal cases.
Hosts preview upcoming Supreme Court oral arguments, an opinion release, and discuss circuit cases relevant to law students.
This episode breaks down Supreme Court decisions, a debate on transgender participation in women's sports, and other legal topics.
Host Sarah Isgur discusses listener criticism about not criticizing the conservative court enough, and introduces a conversation with Professor Richard Ray on consistency in legal philosophy.
Hosts discuss a new Supreme Court case, the legal situation around an ICE shooting in Minneapolis, and a church autonomy case.
Hosts discuss legal news and administrative law with guest Adam White, building up to a grand finale of analysis.
Hosts discuss the Commerce Clause and U.S.
This episode of Advisory Opinions previews upcoming Supreme Court coverage on tariffs and discusses legal topics including the death penalty, National Guard deployment, and immigration under the Biden administration.
This bonus episode features an interview between Judge Patrick Bumatay and Justice Amy Coney Barrett at the 2025 SCOTUS Blog Summit, covering topics like judicial recusals and personal anecdotes.
Hosts discuss the indictment of Jim Comey and a new dissent from the Supreme Court's interim docket.
Hosts discuss a new Supreme Court cert grant involving the FTC and the application of Humphrey's Executor.
This episode features an interview with Yale Law School Professor Justin Driver discussing his book on the decline of affirmative action, alongside analysis of current legal and political events.