Trump Bypasses Congress on Iran

Advisory Opinions

The Dispatch

News, Government, Politics

4.7 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2026

⏱️ 86 minutes

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Summary

Sarah Isgur and David French debate whether President Donald Trump's military action against Iran requires congressional authorization, explore the constitutional limits of presidential power, and argue over which version of James Madison deserves our respect. The Agenda:–Housekeeping: corrections, good causes, and collaborations–Legalities of interventions in Iran–Abrielle skips school to talk about the Hometown Program–Sarah loses it on James Madison Show Notes:–Smith v. Goguen–United States v. Hemani, Animated Explainer | SCOTUSblog + Briefly–War and Peace Cannot Be Left to One Man — Especially Not This Man 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 Isger. That's David French. And if we got a line up for you,
0:24.4	we are going to talk about the legality of America's interventions in Iran, as well as talk about
0:32.2	Smith v. Gogh, a case from 1974 with a freshman in high school. Don't worry. We'll explain.
0:38.9	And finally, our Q&A from Texas A&M, where I lose it on James Madison, David?
0:46.4	You do. You do. Sarah, I have to say that this has been one of our most enjoyable disagreements.
0:53.8	It turns out I hate James Madison. Sarah hates
0:57.2	James Madison. I dedicated my book to him. But just to be clear, Sarah doesn't hate Federalist
1:04.3	Papers, James Madison, whom I adore. She is talking about post-federalist paper James Madison and there's a lot more legitimate
1:13.0	beef there so all this on advisory opinions all right david let's start with some housekeeping first a quick
1:24.6	correction i said that justice alito mouthed, you lie at President
1:29.6	Obama's state of the union. It was actually he mouthed not true. I was conflating him with
1:35.1	Congressman Joe Wilson, who shouted, you lie at a different President Obama speech. So,
1:40.9	Justice Alito mouthed not true when President Obama was talking about Citizens
1:45.4	United. My bad. Apologies to all involved. Next up, so we're going to talk about United States
1:52.0	v. Himani on the next episode. The oral argument is going on on Monday. And this is a case about
1:59.3	whether a drug user can be barred criminally from owning a gun.
2:06.3	We're back to 922G as we always are, David. But SCOTUS blog and advisory opinions have decided to do
2:14.1	a different thing to get y'all up to speed before we break down the oral argument.
2:19.2	We have worked with briefly. They are a tech-enabled legal content company whose mission is to make
2:26.3	legal information more engaging and accessible. And I think you will think they very much
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