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rationally BASED

Center of the American Experiment

Welcome to rationally BASED, a podcast about law and politics, on the edge. Law professors Josh Kleinfeld and Ilan Wurman, with co-host Kathryn Johnson, cover cutting-edge, and edgy, legal and political news, ideas, and developments.

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Today · 57 min
Episode 41 | Can Trump Yank Press Passes?
President Trump barred CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House and called it an assault on fake news, not the free press. The outlets sued, claiming a constitutional right to the credentials. A federal judge, meanwhile, held that Congress cannot prohibit noncitizens from voting in federal elections. Hosts Kathryn Johnson, Joshua Kleinfeld, and Ilan Wurman tackle both, and the question underneath them: when did judges get the power to babysit every decision of employers or the political branches? On the press ban, the outlets claim a Fifth Amendment right to notice and a hearing before those credentials are pulled. Kathryn’s question is the obvious one: heard by whom? Plus, if the government is handing out its own privilege, why can’t it take the privilege back? Ilan says the due process claim is a relic of Goldberg v. Kelly, when courts started treating government privileges as “property.” Josh thinks that revolution turned every official decision into a litigation event. The rule of law becomes the rule of judges. On the First Amendment merits, Ilan argues it may be an unconstitutional-conditions question: no right to a press pass, but can the government condition one on favorable coverage? Josh draws a different line. Viewpoint discrimination is unconstitutional. Calculated lying should not come with a press pass. Kathryn asks the obvious: if a future Democratic president cannot pull the Daily Wire’s credentials, have we frozen yesterday’s media hierarchy into constitutional law? On noncitizen voting, a district judge threw out a charge against a Jamaican national who voted in a Florida federal election, holding Congress's prohibition on noncitizens voting to be unconstitutional. Ilan thinks it is a closer textual question than it looks and may again involve the unconstitutional conditions doctrine. Josh thinks the doctrinal weeds are a trap. A republic is the people governing itself. Citizenship is the line that defines the people. Kathryn points out that "citizenship" may not even be a "voting qualification" within the meaning of the relevant constitutional provisions. This is the rational — and based — discussion of press access, voting, and judicial power that you won’t hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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October 1 · 1 hr 2 min
Episode 40 | Missouri’s Map Fight and the Gerrymandering Arms Race
Midterms are around the corner. Democrats have a shot at the House and Senate. And the maps that will decide those races are being fought in courtrooms as much as in legislatures. Hosts Kathryn Johnson, Joshua Kleinfeld, and Ilan Wurman take on the gerrymandering arms race — and the deeper question underneath it: Should courts referee election maps, or does that hand too much power to judges who never have to face the voters? They start with Virginia, where Democrats tried to turn a 51 percent state into a 10–1 congressional map, then lost on a technicality. Then Texas and California: two states with 60–40 splits in 2024 but maps that look nothing alike. Josh argues that partisan gerrymandering is exactly the kind of attack on democratic machinery courts exist to stop — and that Rucho v. Common Cause was one of the Supreme Court’s great mistakes. Ilan disagrees on the merits: the Fourteenth Amendment protects civil rights, not political rights, and nothing in the Constitution forbids a political gerrymander. Then the Missouri firestorm. Republicans passed a new congressional map. Democrats put it to a referendum. State and federal courts issued conflicting orders to the same official. The U.S. Supreme Court stepped in three times — on the shadow docket — and Missouri will go to the midterms with the old, more Democratic-friendly map. The hosts ask who was right, what the Purcell principle actually requires, and why the Left’s sudden silence about the “shadow docket” is so revealing. This is the rational — and based — discussion of gerrymandering, judicial power, and election maps you won’t hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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September 24 · 1 hr 6 min
Episode 39 | Woke Universities, Foreign Campus Radicals, & Free Speech
A public university is “We the People” spending our money on our children. A foreign student with a visa is a houseguest, not a relative. So why are judges telling states they cannot stop DEI dogma in public classrooms — and telling the United States it cannot send home non-citizens who preach hatred of the country? Hosts Ilan Wurman, Kathryn Johnson, and Joshua Kleinfeld take on two new cases that split conservatives from libertarians. First, a divided Eleventh Circuit held that Florida’s “Stop Woke Act” violates the First Amendment. Second, a California district court held that the Trump Administration cannot revoke student visas for anti-American, antisemitic, or other speech contrary to U.S. national interests. The hosts draw two lines. On immigration, citizenship is the line: speech that is fully protected from an American may still be reason to send a guest home. As to universities, public versus private is the line: a private university may teach what it likes on its own dime, but the people of a community should be able to oversee the institutions they create and fund for the sake of a public mission. This is the conservative/libertarian fight that will decide whether the Constitution is a charter of self-government or a suicide pact. And this is the rational — and based — discussion of free speech, woke ideology, and immigration you won’t hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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September 17 · 1 hr 15 min
Episode 38 | Conservatives Are Getting the Lindsay Clancy Case WRONG
Lindsay Clancy sent her husband out of the house, strangled their three children one by one, and then claimed a voice told her to do it. Was she insane? Eleven jurors voted to acquit. Has the jury system failed us? The conservative media sphere is getting this wrong, hosts Ilan Wurman, Kathryn Johnson, and Joshua Kleinfeld argue. The rage is justified. The insanity defense and the jury — ancient foundations of Anglo-American liberty — are the wrong targets. The disease is identity politics: a culture in which women side with women, and every group sides with its own, no matter the crime. Dead children become an inconvenience. Justice becomes secondary. Fake compassion becomes a tool of power. This is the most passionate episode we have ever recorded. Josh, who has taught criminal law for fifteen years, explains what legal insanity actually is, why it is vanishingly rare, and why this jury still almost acquitted. This is the rational — and based — discussion of crime, gender, and justice you won’t hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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September 10 · 1 hr 8 min
Episode 37 | Family Reconciliation = Hiding Kids From Their Parents?!
Washington State’s “Family Reconciliation Act” — arguably the most Orwellian name in recent memory — requires shelters NOT to notify parents if runaway children say they want “gender-affirming treatment.” Meanwhile, the chief medical groups pushing gender transitions for children — WPATH and the AAP — now claim, in the face of lawsuits for fraud, that their medical standards of care were just “opinions” protected by the First Amendment. Hosts Ilan Wurman, Joshua Kleinfeld, and Kathryn Johnson break down the cases and ask the hard questions: Do the parents challenging Washington’s law have standing – and does it matter if standing doctrine is just a political football anyway? Should conservatives use substantive due process to defend parental rights or try to get rid of substantive due process as the judicial invention it is? And were those “standards of care” claims of fact, or just more politics? This is the rational — and based — discussion of transgenderism and the law that you won’t hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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September 3 · 1 hr 2 min
Episode 36 | Can States Check Voters' Citizenship?
The Supreme Court is poised to decide a major case on citizenship and voting this Term: RNC v. Mi Familia Vota. Only citizens can vote. That is the law federally and in all 50 states. But can states check? That is the question in this case. It seems like a no-brainer that, if the law requires citizenship, a state can require documentary proof of citizenship. But the National Voter Registration Act specifies a form for federal elections that only requires voters to attest that they are citizens; it doesn't require proof. Must Arizona accept the form even for state elections? Can it ask for proof? Your hosts — Kathryn Johnson and law professors Ilan Wurman and Joshua Kleinfeld — break down the issues and ask the bigger question as well: Why do such seemingly simple questions turn into 156-page legal labyrinths? What does that complexity say about American democracy, popular self-government, and the legal system? This is the rational — and based — discussion of voting and citizenship that you won’t find anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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August 27 · 1 hr 8 min
Episode 35 | AR-15s at the Supreme Court: The Second Amendment's Next Test
The Second Amendment revival of the last 15 years has not yet answered a question that affects at least 1 in every 20 American adults: do Americans have a constitutional right to possess AR-15-style semiautomatic rifles? The Supreme Court will finally answer that question this term in Viramontes v. Cook County. Professor Joel Alicea – who is part of the litigation team taking Viramontes to the Supreme Court! – joins hosts Ilan Wurman and Joshua Kleinfeld to break down the issues. Joel, Josh, and Ilan trace the development of Second Amendment doctrine from Heller to the present and dig into the case's real fault line: Does the Second Amendment contain an exception for “dangerous and unusual weapons” (as Blackstone put it before the American Founding) – and, if so, does that exception encompass AR-15s and similar rifles? Is Cook County right that both history and public safety justify treating AR-15s as “military-grade” weapons and distinguishing them from ordinary weapons used for self-defense? The hosts dig into broader questions as well. For decades before the recent revival, the Supreme Court treated the Second Amendment as a constitutional embarrassment and a nullity. What does that teach us about judicial power and the abuse of the judicial role? And what can the Second Amendment cases teach us about the "tiers of scrutiny" — the century-old framework courts use to balance rights against the public interest? Is it real law or judicial improvisation dressed up as doctrine? Do the gun rights cases present an alternative? And – by the way – why are AR-15s called “assault weapons”? Is that a technical term or the political equivalent of calling some knives “murder knives”? This is the rational — and based — preview of the Supreme Court's next major gun case that you won't hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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August 20 · 1 hr 11 min
Episode 34 | Immigration and Due Process: the Emerging Battleground
"Due process of law" is emerging as THE central legal battleground for immigration reform in 2026-27. In this episode, Kathryn Johnson and law professors Joshua Kleinfeld and Ilan Wurman break down the three biggest new cases — and confront the deeper question: What is "due process" anyway? First is Genalo v. Black, which the Supreme Court will hear this October. The statute requires that immigrants convicted of major crimes be detained pending their deportation hearings. But what if those hearings are delayed for years? Does prolonged detention eventually violate due process? Ilan argues that plaintiffs' claim is a weak substantive due process argument (and obviously so), while Josh argues that it's a mistaken but reasonable procedural due process claim. Second is the Fifth Circuit case of Rodriguez v. Ortega, involving illegal immigrants held in mandatory detention pending deportation proceedings. Does mandatory detention violate due process? Does prolonged detention? The issue has caused high drama at the Fifth Circuit and our hosts ask: Is "due process" becoming little more than a fig leaf for judicial political fights over immigration? Third is the D.C. Circuit case of Make the Road New York v. Mullin, challenging the Trump Administration's use of expedited procedures for recently arrived aliens. Under those procedures, an interview with an ICE official — no judge, no counsel — can lead to rapid deportation. Does that violate due process? If you want to understand the legal fights that will shape immigration policy in the year ahead, this is the rational — and based — discussion you won’t hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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August 13 · 1 hr 15 min
Episode 33 | Give Parents the Vote
Parent proxy voting for children is in the news and it's gone viral! On Ross Douthat's podcast, Yale Law professor Samuel Moyn proposed giving 20-somethings extra votes, rather than parents, because “young people — not people who are raising families — will have the best insight into the interests of children” and “Part of our goal as a society is trying to make sure that children aren’t the hostages of their parents." Douthat responded: "I think that’s daft. I think it’s absurd to imagine that a 24-year-old recent college graduate has a better assessment of the interests of my own children than I do." And a meme was born! It happens that THE leading article on this subject -- "Give Parents the Vote" -- was written by Rationally Based’s very own Joshua Kleinfeld! So in this episode, Josh and co-hosts Kathryn Johnson and Ilan Wurman examine the proposal that parents should be able to vote on behalf of their minor children — and why the Left wants to give that power to anyone BUT parents. Some highlights: Children are nearly a QUARTER of the citizenry, and parents and children together are nearly half of the citizenry — but have just 19% of the vote. Adults without children are just over half the citizenry but have about THREE-QUARTERS of the vote. The result is policies — like COVID school closures, debt-financed entitlements, and more — that systematically shortchange the young. Children ALREADY count for apportionment: they determine each state’s seats in Congress, electoral votes for the President, and the drawing of legislative districts. But because they can’t vote and their parents can’t vote for them, their voting power is simply redistributed to all the adults in their districts. The most powerful voter in America is a childless adult in a district with plenty of children. Parent proxy voting is purely a matter of state law. Any state could independently adopt it tomorrow for both federal and state elections without violating the Constitution or any federal statute. It is also feasible. And it is consistent with the role parents have in every other context — defending their children’s interests in contexts from the schools to hospitals to courtrooms. The world-historic fall in the birth rate means that, for the first time in American history, most adults are not parents. The collapse in the birth rate has made the political divergence between parents and the childless newly consequential. Arguably there is NO other intervention that would have more far-reaching effects on American politics than giving parents the vote. This is the rational — and based — discussion of who should speak for the next generation that you won’t hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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August 6 · 1 hr 2 min
Episode 32 | The Constitution at the National Constitution Center
In this bonus episode, we cross post our host's appearance at the National Constitution Center. You can also listen to this episode on We the People, the NCC's wonderful podcast. Julie Silverbrook, Chief Content and Learning Officer at the NCC, asks Professor Ilan Wurman a series of questions about the Founding and the Constitution, based on his new book The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction. What was the connection of the enumerated powers to the royal prerogative of the British monarch? What is the separation of powers, properly understood? What is the meaning of "the executive power," and who has power over foreign affairs? What is the nature of American federalism and our compound republic? Tune in for this wide-ranging and fascinating discussion of America's founding document. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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July 30 · 1 hr 13 min
Episode 31 | Who Writes the Rules of the Game?
Election Money, Mail-In Ballots, and the Supreme Court In this episode, Kathryn Johnson and law professors Joshua Kleinfeld and Ilan Wurman take on three fights over the rules of American elections — and the deeper question of who should control them. First is the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in NRSC v. FEC, which freed political parties to spend unlimited amounts in coordination with their candidates. What is the case really about? Why did it split along partisan lines? Why do Republicans want stronger parties while Democrats prefer a system dominated by advocacy groups? And was the Court's most famous campaign finance case — Citizens United — sound originalism or did it wrongly treat massive publicly traded corporations as if they were small advocacy groups, handing the managerial class a First Amendment license to push progressive politics with corporate money? (Josh and Ilan fight this one out!) Second is Watson v. RNC, the case on the meaning of “Election Day.” On the surface, the case is a technical dispute over whether mail-in ballots must be received or merely sent by Election Day. But under the surface is a larger struggle over who controls the ground rules of counting -- and what rules best protect the integrity of American elections. Third is President Trump’s executive order on mail-in ballot integrity. Trump directed the Postal Service and other agencies to develop stronger rules — and a district court blocked the order before the agencies had even acted. Is that a proper use of judicial power? Or is the real game simply to freeze the status quo before the midterms? This is the rational — and based — discussion of the rules of the political game that you won’t hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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July 23 · 1 hr 4 min
Episode 30 | Are All Cultures Created Equal?
In this episode, hosts Kathryn Johnson and law professor Ilan Wurman take on a hard and controversial question: Are all cultures created equal? Or, more precisely, do all cultures have the same current capacity for constitutional self-government? How much migration and importation of people from foreign cultures and with foreign habits is ideal? Is it racist to even have such discussions? Our hosts also start with other controversial topics. Does the Trump anti-weaponization fund justify...weaponization against Trump's lawyers by referring them to bar discipline? Our hosts discuss Judge William's ruling and how it applies to Obama's lawyers, too, who engaged in "sue and settle" practices. They also return, once again, to birthright citizenship. Even accepting the Court's holding in Trump v. Barbara, is there an argument that the Court's fiction of extraterritoriality, which the majority argued explains the historic exemptions from birthright citizenship, in fact applies to some of the individuals covered by Trump's executive order? This is the rational — and based — conversation you won't hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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July 16 · 1 hr 9 min
Episode 29 | The Constitution, Slavery, and Patriotism
Can You Love America While Facing Its Hardest Truth? In this special episode of our series on the American Founding, hosts Kathryn Johnson and law professors Ilan Wurman and Joshua Kleinfeld take on the hardest question about American patriotism: slavery. Drawing on Ilan’s new book, The Constitution of 1789, they lay out what the Founders actually wrote about slavery — and what they deliberately left out. Almost without exception, the Founders viewed slavery as profoundly evil, though many of them did not match their behavior to their ideals. They designed the Constitution as a containment strategy: a set of political compromises meant to prevent slavery’s expansion and lead eventually to its extinction, not to sanctify or permanently entrench it. The South later abandoned the Founders’ understanding, developing the “positive good” theory of slavery that led to the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision and helped trigger the Civil War. The conversation then turns to today. The hosts push back against the 1619 Project and the broader progressive claim that America is uniquely and permanently defined by slavery. America is permanently defined by overcoming slavery. They ask what a non-propagandistic history actually requires — and what a mature patriotism looks like in light of it. They close with the most personal question of all: Why do you love this country? This is the rational — and based — discussion of the American Founding that you won’t hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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July 9 · 1 hr 13 min
Episode 28 | Supreme Court 6-3: States Can Keep Biological Males Out of Girls' Sports
In this episode, Kathryn Johnson and law professors Ilan Wurman and Joshua Kleinfeld break down the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision upholding state laws that bar biological males who identify as girls from competing in girls’ sports. The majority held that Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause permit states to maintain sex-segregated sports teams based on biological sex. But the deeper divide among the justices was revealing. Justice Kavanaugh wrote a narrow opinion for the Court that avoided the big cultural issues, while Justice Thomas wrote directly that men and boys who identify as women are not women or girls, that sex is an immutable and binary biological reality, and that using ideological language to obscure this fact amounts to lying to the public. The hosts debate whether the Court was right to stay narrow or whether it should have confronted the larger questions head-on. They examine how the majority distinguished this case from Bostock, discuss the Court’s deliberate avoidance of pronouns, and confront the central issue: Is recognizing the sex binary an act of bigotry, as the Left claims, or is it simply a recognition of biological reality that transgender ideology denies? This is the rational — and based — discussion of the Court’s biggest decisions that you won’t hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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July 6 · 58 min
Episode 27 | Supreme Court Delivers a Landmark Win for the Unitary Executive
In this episode, Kathryn Johnson and law professors Ilan Wurman and Joshua Kleinfeld break down two blockbuster end-of-term SCOTUS decisions on the administrative state: Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook. In the first case, the Supreme Court held that the President can remove commissioners and directors from powerful, insulated agencies like the FTC, the SEC, and the CFPB — effectively overruling a century of government by independent agencies. This is one of the most significant expansions of presidential authority over the executive branch in decades. The era of unelected bureaucrats running the federal government may not be over, but this is among the biggest blows it has ever been dealt. In the second case, however, the Supreme Court carved out an exception for the Federal Reserve. Does the exception make constitutional sense, or is it simply a pragmatic concession? These are earth-shattering developments. Was the Court right to allow the President to fire all principal officers? Should expert power (agencies) be more insulated against popular power (presidents)? Is the exception for the Fed just based on pragmatism? Is that a bad thing? This is the rational — and based — discussion of the Court’s biggest decisions that you won’t hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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July 1 · 1 hr 11 min
Episode 26 | Birthright Bombshell at the Supreme Court
In this episode, Kathryn Johnson and law professors Ilan Wurman and Joshua Kleinfeld break down the Supreme Court's 5-4 birthright citizenship decision — a much more closely divided ruling than many expected. Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the Court, held that the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment confers citizenship on virtually anyone born on U.S. soil, with only narrow historical exceptions. The decision effectively takes the issue out of the democratic process, requiring either a constitutional amendment or a future Court to change course. The hosts also analyze the full range of views across the concurrences and dissents: Justice Kavanaugh’s narrower, more statutory approach that would leave room for Congress to act; Justice Alito’s rejection of British “birthright subjecthood” and focus on the Civil Rights Act of 1866; and Justice Thomas and Gorsuch's domicile-based theory. They also examine Justice Jackson’s concurrence, which pushes a sweeping “antisubordination” reading of the Fourteenth Amendment that even Justice Sotomayor declined to join in full and that puts Justices Jackson and Thomas directly at odds. The conversation explores the deeper stakes: Did the majority get the original meaning right, or did it entrench a contested historical view and disable democratic self-government? Should consequences — such as birth tourism and incentives for illegal immigrants — matter in constitutional interpretation? And what realistic paths remain for those who believe birthright citizenship should be more limited? This is the rational — and based — discussion of the Court’s biggest decisions that you won’t hear anywhere else. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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June 29 · 1 hr 10 min
Episode 25 | Alito Day
In this special episode, our hosts — Kathryn Johnson and law professors Ilan Wurman and Joshua Kleinfeld — tackle four recent Supreme Court decisions. They focus on the two big immigration cases from Thursday, where the Supreme Court upheld the right to hold migrants on the Mexico side of the border without processing their asylum claims, and held that Trump could end Temporary Protected Status for Haiti and Syria. Our hosts talk about the Left's judicial lawfare, and ask deep questions about the nature and purpose of our asylum and immigration laws. They round out the episode with the Court's decision invalidating restrictions on public carrying of firearms in Hawaii, and they ask what about communist regimes expropriating private property makes the three liberal Justices want to side with Cuba instead of an American oil company. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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June 25 · 1 hr 7 min
Episode 24 | Welfare Fraud and the Constitution
In this episode, our hosts — Kathryn Johnson and law professors Ilan Wurman and Joshua Kleinfeld — take on a topic that has taken the country by storm over the last several months: welfare fraud. They go over some legal developments involving the Trump Administration's efforts to stem the fraud, including intricate administrative law questions involving "final agency action" and whether agencies may act on political pretexts. They touch, as always, on activist judges seeking to thwart the administration's efforts. They also go deeper and debate the constitutional roots of the welfare system. Ilan argues in his new book that Congress does not have an independent power to spend for the general welfare — and that social security and most other federal welfare systems are probably unconstitutional. Josh thinks Ilan's argument is crazy. Whos' right? And Ilan, Josh, and Kathryn debate whether welfare saps the foundations of a free society. Join our hosts as they engage in an unusually robust debate among themselves about these topics fundamental to the future of America. And don't forget to buy Ilan's book, The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction, which is now available online or in bookstores near you. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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June 18 · 1 hr 5 min
Episode 23 | When Law Firms Go Hard Left: Trump & the Law Firm EOs
In this episode, Kathryn Johnson and law professors Ilan Wurman and Joshua Kleinfeld take on one of the most controversial actions of the Trump administration: executive orders targeting major law firms. Some legal scholars have called these orders the most unconstitutional thing Trump has ever done. Our hosts aren’t convinced — though they acknowledge the orders raise hard legal questions, particularly around the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions. Can the government restrict law firms’ access to federal contracts and security clearances when those firms systematically discriminate against conservatives and pour overwhelming resources into lawfare against one side of the political spectrum, or against the chief executive? When the most powerful institutions in society act in lockstep against one half of the citizenry, does ordinary life become unfree and the country become undemocratic? Is free speech real when saying conservative things can end your career? Do elections matter if powerful institutions use their coordinated power to continue pushing the country to the Left, despite the will of the people? Are law firms uniquely dangerous in this regard because they don’t just participate in politics, they bring overwhelming resources to bear directly on the content of the law? Our hosts round out the episode with the latest legal developments in the E. Jean Carroll case, and ask: Would Trump be justified in going after Ms. Carroll for perjury, if she lied under oath about whether her lawfare against Trump was funded by a progressive billionaire? This is the rational — and based — discussion that conventional voices refuse to have. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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June 11 · 1 hr 11 min
Episode 22 | Judges vs. The People: The Latest Battles on Transgender Activism & Illegal Immigration
In this episode, our hosts — Kathryn Johnson and law professors Ilan Wurman and Joshua Kleinfeld — examine the three latest examples of judicial power being used to block elected officials. They cover Florida’s effort to hold the American Academy of Pediatrics and WPATH to account for lying about the risks and benefits of transgender surgery on kids — only for an Illinois federal judge to step in and halt the state proceedings on First Amendment grounds. They cover the D.C. Circuit’s decision to overrule Pete Hegseth and compel the American military to permit transgender service members — holding that his policy was motivated by bare “animus" with no rational basis. And they cover a Tennessee federal judge’s decision to dismiss human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on the novel theory of "vindictive prosecution" — once again protecting an illegal immigrant with alleged gang ties from deportation. The episode closes with a deeper discussion of judicial power itself: what happens when major policy questions keep getting resolved by courts rather than through democratic politics? Have conservatives been too sanguine about the judiciary’s role? Don’t miss it. And be sure to check out Professor Wurman’s new book, The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction, now available from Cambridge University Press. Be sure to LIKE, SHARE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE to rationally BASED! Subscribe to our Substack! New Podcast Episodes every Thursday morning, find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube! Follow us on social media on Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok!
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