Did Congress Stretch the Commerce Clause Too Far? | Interview: Jonathan Karl

Advisory Opinions

The Dispatch

News, Politics, Government

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2025

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What does a federal firearm prohibition and a hate crime have to do with the Commerce Clause? Sarah Isgur and David French look at the constitutionality of two cases and whether the Supreme Court will accept a challenge to the law. Plus: Jonathan Karl, author of Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America, joins the pod to discuss Donald Trump’s legal challenges during the 2024 campaign. The Agenda:—Ken Burns’ latest documentary—United States v. Lopez—U.S. appeals court upholds hate crime convictions—Reason: Is the Federal Prohibition on Felon Firearm Possession Constitutional?—The final act of the Trump Show—The New York indictment as Trump’s campaign stage We’re running a listener survey, which you can find at thedispatch.typeform.com/podcast. Show Notes:—Listen to our Dispatch Podcast interview with Jonathan Karl, Steve Hayes, and Declan Garvey 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You ready?
0:02.0	I was born ready.
0:04.0	Welcome to advisory opinions. I'm Sarah Isger still suffering from a cold, and that's David French.
0:24.9	And we've got a fun show for you today. We're going to go back and do Lopez and the Commerce Clause because we've got two circuit cases to talk to you all about that are both Lopez hooks.
0:36.1	And if you don't know about the 1995 case, US v. Lopez, about the
0:40.1	gun-free school zones, boy, are you in for a treat. Plus, we have special guest of the pod.
0:48.2	Jonathan Carl from ABC News coming to talk about his new book, Retribution, which has lots of legal stuff in it, because frankly,
0:57.7	the last year, year and a half of our politics has had a lot of legal stuff in it. So,
1:04.1	stay tuned for John Carl. I want to talk to my fellow attorneys for a moment. Do you really want
1:09.9	to spend time on the technical
1:11.1	side of briefing, blue booking, tables, appendix assembly, bait stamping? Or would you rather
1:16.5	focus on your argument? Typelaw can take your draft and exhibits and transform them into a court-ready,
1:22.2	rule-compliant e-brief and appendix overnight. They've helped prepare over 10,000 filings in courts across the country,
1:28.9	even SCOTUS. Learn more at typelaw.com and use referral code advisory to save 10% on your first order.
1:35.5	That's typelaw.com. David, before we hop into Lopez, I am watching the Ken Burns American
1:43.9	Revolution documentary that is airing every night this week.
1:47.1	And it is incredible.
1:49.2	Oh, I can't wait.
1:50.0	I haven't started it yet.
1:50.9	I cannot wait.
1:51.5	Okay, the cast is amazing.
1:52.9	These are the people who read the quotes.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Dispatch, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Dispatch and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.