All the Things Wrong with Trump’s Billion-Dollar Fund

Advisory Opinions

The Dispatch

News, Government, Politics

4.7 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2026

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sarah Isgur and David French analyze President Donald Trump’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund through the lens of three legal “buckets,” and talk about how federal appropriations work and the Obama-era case that hangs over this legal issue. The two also discuss the Supreme Court’s latest cert grant on a Title IX case, plus the circuit split brewing over the First Amendment and judicial elections. The Agenda: –Court agrees to hear case on the ability of employees to bring certain suits for sex discrimination –Going through the settlement agreement, it’s practically a blank check! –Todd Blanche essentially pardons Trump’s family –‘That’s not how appropriations work.’ –Georgia Supreme Court race finishes strong Show Notes: –Chief Judge William Pryor’s opinion –Anti-Weaponization Fund –Keepseagle v. Vilsack Advisory Opinions is a production of SCOTUSblog and The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. Click here to sign up for our new Advisory Opinions newsletter, and click here to access all of The Dispatch’s offerings, including audio versions of all our articles and newsletters. If you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member by clicking here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ready?
0:02.2	I was born ready.
0:18.5	Welcome to advisory opinions. I'm Sarah Isger. That's David French. And on today's episode,
0:25.1	we are digging into the nine-page settlement agreement between the Department of Justice and Donald
0:31.0	Trump and the $1.776 billion that has been withdrawn from the general fund. Say what now? We'll dig into all of the
0:42.4	ways in which this could be legal, could have been done, is it legal? Everything involved in that.
0:48.1	We will also talk about the Supreme Court's latest CERT grant in brief Title IX. Does it
0:53.9	apply to employees or just students?
0:56.7	And the Georgia Supreme Court race finishes out strong, but don't worry, because we have cases
1:04.4	from the Sixth Circuit and the Eleventh Circuit, a kind of circuit split brewing about the First
1:10.1	Amendment and judicial elections. We'll weigh in on that
1:13.1	too. And David, I just have to tell you, I spoke to the judges of the Southern District of New York
1:18.9	yesterday, and I got an SD&Y tote bag, and it is my new prized possession. So if you ever see me
1:24.9	out in the wild, I'm going to be carrying an SD&Y tote bag so proudly.
1:29.5	And if you don't know this, the Southern District of New York is sometimes called the
1:34.7	sovereign district of New York because main justice folks take a little umbrage at the SD&Y U.S.
1:41.8	Attorney's Office for acting to independently in the SD&Y U.S. Attorney's Office.
1:46.6	I'm sure they have all sorts of derisive names for Maine Justice.
1:49.8	But I just think that someone out there should make a sovereign district of New York tote bag,
1:54.4	and then I can have dueling SD&Y tote bags.
1:57.7	But an exciting day for me in New York. More to come on advisory opinions.
2:06.6	Changes in sexual performance are more common than most people realize, and support doesn't
	...

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