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The Lincoln Project

Judges Gone Wild: The Robe Room Where It Happens

The Lincoln Project

The Lincoln Project

News, Government, Politics, News Commentary

4.69.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Supreme Court was meant to be the last guardrail—the final check when everything else fails—but what happens when that guardrail starts to wobble? This week, Rick Wilson sits down with legal analyst and author Sarah Isgur to break down the modern Court from the inside out: the personalities driving decisions, the growing reliance on the shadow docket, and the myth of pure judicial objectivity. They unpack how power actually works behind the robes, why the justices’ individual worldviews matter more than ever, and how diversity of experience—not just race or gender—shapes the outcomes that ripple across the country. In a moment where Congress is gridlocked and the executive branch is aggressively asserting its power, the Court has become the ultimate referee in America’s biggest fights—but whether it’s equipped for that role, or cracking under the pressure, is the question hanging over everything.





Sarah Isgur is on X @whignewtons & on Instagram @sarahmisgur. Her new book ‘Last Branch Standing,’ is available now wherever fine books are sold. 

Rick Wilson is on X at @TheRickWilson, on Bluesky at @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and you can check out Rick's Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. You can check out more of LP's work at www.lincolnproject.us and on X at @ProjectLincoln. 

Build credit fast and get your first month for just a dollar at getkikoff.com/lincolnproject today. Thanks to Kikoff for sponsoring us! #AD

Transcript

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0:00.0

I sort of feel like it's the chief being like,

0:01.9

welcome to my branch, Biocch.

0:04.5

You're in my town now, Chief.

0:07.6

Your task will not be an easy one.

0:09.9

Your enemy is well trained, well equipped in battlehardt.

0:13.8

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America.

0:17.4

There is the United States of America.

0:22.2

Good night and good luck.

0:24.7

Hey, everybody.

0:25.2

Welcome back to the Lincoln Project podcast.

0:26.8

I'm Rick Wilson, your host, as always.

0:28.6

Thank you so much for joining us today.

0:30.6

I am delighted to be with Sarah Isker today.

0:33.0

Sarah is the host of the advisory opinions podcast over at the dispatch.

0:37.0

She is a former campaign person,

0:39.9

which I guess where we met many years ago, Sarah. And she's the author of a terrific new book

0:44.9

called Last Branch Standing. This is a contemporary history of the Supreme Court that delves

0:52.3

into a lot of the mysteries of how the court works about the

0:55.8

political and the ideological divides inside the court. What we get right about it that we can

1:00.4

sort of see from the outside and what we get wrong about it that we don't see because

1:05.6

Sarah is deeply sourced in all this world, understands like what the court's internal

1:10.7

chemistry looks like a lot better

...

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