District Map Fights Before the 2026 Midterms
5/29/20261 hr 17 min
David Lat joins Sarah Isgur (see ya later, French) to discuss the three-judge panel overturning Alabama’s congressional maps, a new lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s slush fund, and a lying Judge. The Agenda: –No redistricting according to race –Nonsense lawsuits –Dragging courts into political fights –Moving honey buns is interstate commerce –Sanction more judges? –Feeling Wicker-ty –The Arbitration Act is sexy! –Making clerks very uncomfortable Show Notes: –Pitchford v. Cain –Flowers Foods v. Brock –Rutherford v. United States –Fernandez v. United States–Wickard v. Filburn Advisory Opinions is a production of SCOTUSblog and The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. Click here to sign up for our new Advisory Opinions newsletter, and click here to access all of The Dispatch’s offerings, including audio versions of all our articles and newsletters. 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
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSarah Isgur· Host0:01
You ready?
David Lat· Guest0:01
I was born ready.
Sarah Isgur· Host0:03
[upbeat music] Welcome to Advisory Opinions. I'm Sarah Isgur. That's David Lat from Original Jurisdiction, and we have, well, I'd say we have three buckets to cover with you all today. Number one, some updates on things in the news. First of all, Alabama's districts not in effect anymore. The three-judge panel in Alabama threw them back out for the 2026 midterm elections, citing Section Two of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment, that thing that everyone said was toothless. It's going back to the Supreme Court. Let's see what happens next. And a new lawsuit against the slush fund, kind of even more meritless than the last one. Then we've got four decisions from the Supreme Court, one on the Federal Arbitration Act. Do not turn off this podcast 'cause you heard FAA. This is gonna be fun arbitration talk here, and you will all stay for it because the Arbitration Act is sexy as hell. And then we have three criminal cases, one on Batson challenges and two on the First Step Act. And last, this one not safe for work maybe, a judge issued a judicial reprimand f- for