The Conservative Warren Court of Today

Advisory Opinions

The Dispatch

Politics, News, Government

4.8 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2026

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Harvard law professor Richard Re discusses the evolution of the Supreme Court from the Warren court to the present day, highlighting the historical context of the court's decisions, the role of swing justices, and the current dynamics of originalism and textualism in judicial interpretation.The Agenda:—What is the conservative Warren court?—Reversal in power dynamics—The swing justice era—The Roberts court has the lowest rate of overturning precedents—Common good constitutionalism reflects a generational pivot in legal thought—Textualism is now seen as the generally accepted mode of interpretation—Deference’s varied meaningsShow Notes:—Richard Re: To a Conservative Warren Court—Oral argument live blog for Tuesday, January 13—Justices Alito and Thomas dissent in the Parents Protecting Our Children case—Did Justice Kagan debilitate the administrative state?—Not Enough Respect for the Judiciary—Or Too Much?—Supreme Court Increasingly Favors the Rich, Economists Say—Does the Supreme Court Favor the Rich?—Has the Supreme Court Helped Save Democracy? 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

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0:00.0	Ready?
0:02.0	I was born ready.
0:04.0	Welcome to Advisory Opinions. I'm Sarah Isker and... Oh, yeah, nope, David French isn't here today. It's just me.
0:26.4	But I think you're going to be pleased. By the way, quick plug. Scotus blog is doing their live blog for Tuesday's
0:33.3	argument on trans participation in sports. So definitely check that out as you're listening to this
0:38.4	podcast. And of course, our usual Thursday podcast will cover that oral argument as well.
0:44.5	But now for today's podcast, we have gotten listener emails that we don't criticize the court
0:51.0	enough and in particular criticize the conservatives on the court enough.
0:55.4	Now, I will tell you, I think we've done a pretty good job. We've had professors
0:59.6	Sandy Levinson, Dan Epps, Julian Mortensen, all pretty left-leaning guys. We've had judges,
1:07.2	plenty of judges, appointed by Democratic presidents. David Ladd and Amy Howe are
1:13.4	hardly right-leaning. But I do take the criticism to heart. And this podcast is all about
1:21.0	consistency and making all of us, including me, feel uncomfortable about how we think about this court
1:29.3	and the history of the Supreme Court and really what it means to be consistent in your legal
1:35.4	philosophy. It's a bit of a slow burn. So hang with us if you can while we get to things like
1:41.0	standing and legislative history and whether Brown v. Board of Education
1:45.9	has anything in common with Citizens United or the SFFA Affirmative Action case.
1:52.2	And to talk about all this with me is Professor Richard Ray from Harvard Law School
1:55.6	because he's going to make the argument that this court should really be called not the Roberts
2:01.7	Court, but the conservative Warren Court.
2:09.5	This episode of advisory opinions is brought to you by our friends at Pacific Legal Foundation.
2:14.8	Since they were founded in 1973, PLF has won 18 Supreme Court
	...

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