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Advisory Opinions

Politics of the Supreme Court

Advisory Opinions

The Dispatch

News, Government, Politics

4.74K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2020

⏱️ 77 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How will Amy Coney Barrett shake things up on the bench if she is confirmed by the Senate before November 3? “Amy Coney Barrett will not be as revolutionary as the left fears or the right wishes,” Sarah argues, “Because no justice really is, because it’s one vote.” On today’s episode, David and Sarah address the hysteria surrounding her upcoming Senate confirmation battle while breaking down what a 6-3 conservative majority would mean for the future of Supreme Court jurisprudence. Sarah and David are also joined by Ilya Shapiro—director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute and publisher of the Cato Supreme Court Review—for a conversation about the politics and history of Supreme Court nominations. To a certain degree, politics has always played a role in Supreme Court nominations. What makes this era unique? “What’s different is that you have divergent interpretive theories mapping onto partisan preference at a time when the parties are more ideologically sorted than they’ve been since at least the Civil War,” Shapiro argues. When it comes to divergent legal theories, “every decade provides a new escalation.” Tune in for a conversation about the future of First and Second Amendment jurisprudence, the left’s misconceptions surrounding Roe v. Wade, and the problems associated with public hearings for judicial nominations. Show Notes: -30 day free trial at The Dispatch, CBS post-debate poll, “Why Amy Coney Barrett Should Not Be On The Supreme Court” by Nathan Robinson in Current Affairs, Chevron doctrine, “Qualified and Absolute Immunity at Common Law” by Scott Keller and Jay Schweikert’s response in Cato. -Ilya Shapiro’s new book: Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court and Ted Kennedy tirade against Judge Robert Bork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

You ready?

0:02.0

I was born ready.

0:04.0

Welcome to an already contentious advisory opinions podcast.

0:24.0

Moments before this podcast began.

0:27.0

Sarah Isger, my co-host, launched an unprovoked attack on our producer Caleb.

0:33.0

It included the words hit record you dumb dumb.

0:37.0

It's a term of endearment.

0:39.0

Okay, a term of endearment.

0:41.0

We were having some mild technical difficulties to get started and through some, I don't know, technical magic that Sarah won't describe.

0:51.0

We're now able to record.

0:53.0

Well, the technical difficulties were on my end, but you never know they could re-technical difficult themselves.

0:59.0

And so I was telling Caleb, like, start the recording before this all falls apart.

1:03.0

Did error.

1:05.0

Well, we've got a great podcast.

1:07.0

We're going to talk briefly about post debate polling.

1:11.0

We're going to talk about how will Amy Coney Barrett shift the court?

1:15.0

And then we're going to be joined by a special guest, Ilia Shapiro from the Kato Institute,

1:19.0

who has written a new book extremely timely.

1:23.0

And then we're going to talk about into the Sarah, but he released his book on the exact same day that I released my book, which kind of.

1:31.0

Pretty different books.

1:33.0

They are pretty different, but it sort of makes us like the sharks and the jets, west side story reference to of book authors.

1:39.0

Well, now I'm just disappointed we didn't do some good like snapping.

...

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