Proust or Plato
Divided ArgumentOctober 03, 2025x
28
00:52:3548.15 MB

Proust or Plato

For the season finale, we're joined by Yale law professor Justin Driver to talk about his new book, "The Fall of Affirmative Action: Race, the Supreme Court, and the Future of Higher Education." We discuss the conservative cases for and against affirmative action, the post-SFFA world of university a...

Byzantine Wall
Divided ArgumentSeptember 11, 2025x
27
01:16:5170.37 MB

Byzantine Wall

We extend our record-breaking run with a discussion of the Court's two big recent emergency docket rulings: Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo and NIH v. American Public Health Association.

Bedrock Con Law 101
Divided ArgumentAugust 29, 2025x
26
01:07:0061.35 MB

Bedrock Con Law 101

We're joined by Michigan law professor Richard Primus to talk about his new book, "The Oldest Constitutional Question: Enumerated and Federal Power." Richard describes one of the the most widespread beliefs about constitutional law -- that the federal government is one of limited, enumerated powers ...

Originalism Hulk
Divided ArgumentAugust 09, 2025x
25
01:26:4479.41 MB

Originalism Hulk

Continuing our long slog through the end-of-Term opinion dump, it's fraud day! We dig into Kousisis v. United States and Thompson v. United States, two interesting federal criminal law puzzles.

The Country of the Future
Divided ArgumentJuly 28, 2025x
24
01:30:3282.9 MB

The Country of the Future

We finally circle back to the two big structural constitutional law cases from the last day of the term. First is Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, which upheld the appointment structure of the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force under the Affordable Care Act. Then is FCC v. Consumers' Research, wh...

The Thunder Docket
Divided ArgumentJuly 25, 2025x
23
00:30:5028.24 MB

The Thunder Docket

Acting with unpredictable alacrity and unpredictable brevity, we break down the Supreme Court's recent interim order in Trump v. Boyle, and discuss what it means for the unitary executive, and for the shadow docket. We also debate the best name for the Court's emergency/interim orders docket.

Snake-Charmer-Specific
Divided ArgumentJuly 19, 2025x
22
01:03:5558.53 MB

Snake-Charmer-Specific

Moving with shockingly unpredictable efficiency, we respond to feedback, debate which of us is more composting-friendly, catch up on the emergency docket, and chip away at our end-of-Term backlog by digging into Diamond Alternative Energy v. EPA.

Didactic and Inculcatory
Divided ArgumentJuly 08, 2025x
21
01:29:1681.74 MB

Didactic and Inculcatory

We look at the final orders list before summer break, and then continue to work through last month's opinions, this time with an extended analysis of two decisions about children and culture wars -- Mahmoud v. Taylor (religious objections to LGBTQ+-inclusive books) and Free Speech Coalition v. Paxto...

Schrödinger's Innocence Right
Divided ArgumentJuly 02, 2025x
20
01:16:4170.22 MB

Schrödinger's Innocence Right

We talk a bit more about Trump v. CASA, revisit the usage of "general," answer some voicemails, and then turn to Gutierrez v. Saenz, a procedural tangle about whether a death row inmate can sue a state prosecutor over access to DNA testing.

Why Are We Here?
Divided ArgumentJune 27, 2025x
19
01:12:2366.27 MB

Why Are We Here?

We celebrate the 100th episode of the podcast with a special cross-over episode with Sarah Isgur at Advisory Opinions! Sarah, Will, and Dan break down today's blockbuster decision in Trump v. CASA, forbidding universal injunctions (and not saying much about birthright citizenship).

Loose Signification
Divided ArgumentJune 26, 2025x
18
01:02:0556.84 MB

Loose Signification

We're joined by a special guest, Harvard Law Professor Stephen Sachs, to talk about Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization. Fuld is last week's big personal jurisdiction case, where the Court upheld federal laws extending jurisdiction to the PLO and PA for antiterrorism lawsuits. The author of se...

Caesar's Face
Divided ArgumentJune 25, 2025x
17
01:04:0258.64 MB

Caesar's Face

After some feedback and further thoughts on our Skrmetti episode and a shocking revelation about "LabCorp," we circle back to an earlier June opinion about religious distinctions, Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission. Dan keeps Will up past his bedtime.

Low Horse
Divided ArgumentJune 21, 2025x
16
01:13:2667.25 MB

Low Horse

Without much introductory ado, we interrupt Will's vacation to give you a thorough breakdown of United States v. Skrmetti, the trans health care case that is one of the most-watched cases of the term.

Truth and Reconciliation
Divided ArgumentJune 07, 2025x
15
00:57:2652.59 MB

Truth and Reconciliation

We start out by debating who's responsible for Dan's audio snafus last time before digging into a various odds and ends, such as the Chief Justice's toast at the Supreme Court Historical Society dinner and President Trump's renunciation of Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society. We then try to make ...

Delete This. Call Me.
Divided ArgumentJune 02, 2025x
14
01:19:0472.4 MB

Delete This. Call Me.

With apologies for Dan's horrendous audio quality: we catch up on the latest emergency-docket happenings and debate whether Trump v. Wilcox is a big deal or small potatoes. We also catch up on listener feedback and, for the first time in a long time, play a couple of messages received on our voicema...

Gorsuch Genie
Divided ArgumentMay 22, 2025x
13
01:06:5461.26 MB

Gorsuch Genie

We're joined by NYU law professor Rachel Barkow to talk about her new book, "Justice Abandoned: How the Supreme Court Ignored the Constitution and Enabled Mass Incarceration." Listen to learn about five (or six) Supreme Court cases that arguably ignored the original meaning of the Constitution to en...

Friends with Oprah Winfrey
Divided ArgumentMay 20, 2025x
12
00:49:0144.88 MB

Friends with Oprah Winfrey

We're back with another unexpectedly short and timely episode, focusing on last Friday's emergency docket decision in AARP v. Trump. We also spend a few minutes on a few other orders: the administration's partial victory in Noem v. National TPS Alliance and a puzzling mass recusal.

A Trees Guy in a Forest Court
Divided ArgumentMay 16, 2025x
11
01:00:5455.77 MB

A Trees Guy in a Forest Court

We reflect on the death of Justice Souter and sort out some loose ends from the last episode. We then dig into the Court's only opinion from Thursday, Barnes v. Felix, which we previewed with friend of the show Orin Kerr back in February at Stanford. Along the way we make a short detour into generat...

Moot, Wrong, and Irrelevant
Divided ArgumentApril 25, 2025x
10
01:09:3363.68 MB

Moot, Wrong, and Irrelevant

The shadow docket strikes once again! We break down the Court's unusual immigration ruling in AARP v. Trump (no, not that AARP!), and then briefly discuss the much-heralded ERISA case (Cunningham v. Cornell). But first we discuss some blog news, some SCOTUS news, and some SCOTUSblog news.

Vaxxed and Relaxed
Divided ArgumentApril 16, 2025x
9
00:56:1451.49 MB

Vaxxed and Relaxed

We have another short administrative law episode, analyzing the Supreme Court's decision about e-cigarettes in FDA v. Wages and White Lion. But first we field some listener pushback about facial challenges in administrative law, and discuss the shadow docket ruling, and ensuing fallout, in Noem v. A...

In Whack ASAP
Divided ArgumentApril 11, 2025x
8
00:59:0154.05 MB

In Whack ASAP

Thanks to the Harvard Law Review, we recorded a live episode in the famed Austin Hall at Harvard Law School.

Sufficiently IKEA-like
Divided ArgumentApril 02, 2025x
7
00:48:1744.29 MB

Sufficiently IKEA-like

We are back with an unexpectedly concise episode focused on last week's "ghost guns" decision, Bondi v. Vanderstok. But first we talk about the calls to reconsider the Court's Confrontation Clause doctrine and also return to the number of votes needed to call for the views of the Solicitor General (...

Stunned But Respectful
Divided ArgumentMarch 14, 2025x
6
01:06:0060.51 MB

Stunned But Respectful

We announce the new Divided Argument blog! After discussing the blog and some listener feedback, we break down two recent 5-4 decisions -- the shadow docket fight over USAID funding in Department of State v. Aids Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and the Section 1983 exhaustion decision in Williams v. Reed...

Natural Side Effect
Divided ArgumentFebruary 27, 2025x
5
01:20:1073.49 MB

Natural Side Effect

Back in the studio after a couple of fun live shows, we discover that the Court has finally given us too much to talk about. We discuss the new Trump Administration's first shadow docket adventure, a number of interesting solo opinions from the orders list, the decline in summary reversals, and the ...

Hypothetical Unicorn
Divided ArgumentFebruary 14, 2025x
4
01:04:2158.99 MB

Hypothetical Unicorn

Divided Argument is live from the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, hosted by the Northwestern Federalist Society! We discuss whether we are in the middle of a constitutional crisis, the coming demise of Humphrey's Executor, and various shadow docket developments. Then we preview the issues at st...

Double Negatives
Divided ArgumentJanuary 30, 2025x
3
01:07:1761.61 MB

Double Negatives

Divided Argument is live from Stanford Law School, hosted by the Stanford Constitutional Law Center! We review an unusual summary reversal in a capital habeas case and the latest universal injunction developments, and discuss some of the implications of the change in administration. After that, we a...

Reference Check
Divided ArgumentJanuary 19, 2025x
2
01:05:3360.03 MB

Reference Check

In unpredictable fashion, we record a shockingly timely episode to reflect on the Court's hasty per curiam in the TikTok case. Along the way, we catch up on the shadow docket happenings, manage not to get derailed by an ethics discussion, discover a surprising opinion revision in real time, and brea...

Aide-de-camp
Divided ArgumentDecember 17, 2024x
1
01:10:5264.96 MB

Aide-de-camp

After an unpredictably long hiatus, we're back to talk about what we missed. We debate the off-the-rails FedSoc panel Dan was on, work through some shadow docket happenings and the Court's two recent DIGs, ponder the implications of the election on the Court, and briefly discuss the first merits opi...