Mike Warren 0:00

[upbeat music] Welcome to the Dispatch Podcast. I'm Mike Warren. On today's roundtable, we'll take a look at the most recent decisions handed down by the Supreme Court, the right-wing reaction to the birthright citizenship decision, and what the fallout says about the state of the conservative legal movement. Then we'll discuss the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our independence, what exactly is going on on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and how the rest of the country will celebrate America's birthday. I'm joined today by Dispatch co-founder Jonah Goldberg, Dispatch contributor Meghan McArdle, and Advisory Opinion special guest David French. Let's dive in. [upbeat music]

Mike Warren 0:57

All right, well, let's talk about this Supreme Court term. It has just ended, and I think we're gonna have quite a bit to talk about the implications of the big final case on birthright citizenship. But David, I want to start with you, and by the way, I should start before I start with you by saying that listeners, if you are not listening to Advisory Opinions, and this week of all weeks, you should go remedy that after you finish listening to us. David and Sarah, you know, really broke down in two episodes this week, these last days of opinions, but go check it out all the time. Of course, SCOTUSblog as well has all the coverage of these cases. But before we dive into birthright citizenship and some of those implications, David, maybe you could kind of give us an overview of what the takeaway might be from this term, because there were a lot of high-profile cases, and it's not just birthright citizenship as well. You know, at the beginning of this kind of decision season, we had the VRA, the Voting Rights Act case. We had the tariff case, a real slap against the Trump administration. It wasn't the only one, but, I mean, you could just go on and on and on. There is-

Megan McArdle 2:11

Transgender sports. Writing my column, uh, on that this week so...

David French 2:16

Conversion therapy.

Mike Warren 2:17

Exactly. You've got the sort of mixed results on who Trump or who s- excuse me, a president can and can't fire in the federal government with those two cases. You've got all kinds of voting counting cases and campaign finance cases. So taking all of that together, David, are there any conclusions that we can make about this court? You know, themes. Is it a mishmash? Is it, you know, a triumph for constitutionalism and, and originalism, no matter how you slice the results? How do you see ultimately and observe and analyze this particular term of this Supreme Court?