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Welcome to Uncommon Knowledge. I'm Peter Robinson.

Professor of Law at New York University, Professor of Law,

Emeritus at the University of Chicago at a fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Richard Epstein is one of the most widely published and influential legal scholars of the last half-century.

And I'm not even making that up, am I John? That is strictly speaking true.

I think it's longer than half a century now. I think it's about a century.

It's about a century. We'll come to you in a moment.

Professor Epstein represents one half of the legal team on the popular podcast Law Talk.

Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, John U,

served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General during the administration of President George W. Bush.

Professor U is not quite as widely published as Professor Epstein, but he's getting there.

Professor U is the other half of the legal team on Law Talk. Richard, John, welcome.

Good to be here and nice to have my son, John, 20 years my junior on this show with me.

The big one first, abortion. Let me set it up.

Roe v. Wade in 1973 and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992.

In those two cases, the Supreme Court overturned virtually all prohibitions on abortion during the first trimester or 24 weeks of pregnancy.

In 2018, the State of Mississippi enacted a law banning abortion after 15 weeks and was promptly sued.

This passed December. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

Dobbs is a State official in Mississippi who's the subject of the law suit.

The defendant, the State of Mississippi explicitly urged the court to overturn Roe.

Before the oral arguments in December, John U predicted that the court would decide the case narrowly upholding Roe.

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