What Is Originalism? | Interview: Sherif Girgis

The new Supreme Court term has officially started, Sarah Isgur has returned from Down Under, and Sherif Girgis is taking a job at Harvard Law School. The vibes on today’s podcast are immaculate as Sarah and David discuss the long conference before Girgis joins them to discuss Justice Samuel Alito’s new book and his recusal from the biggest case of the term. The Agenda: –42 pages of cert denials –The off-ramps of originalism –Behind the scenes in Alito’s chambers Show notes: 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. Sarah Isgur is a senior editor at The Dispatch and is based in northern Virginia. Prior to joining the company in 2019, she had worked in every branch of the federal government and on three presidential campaigns. She’s also an ABC News contributor and the New York Times bestselling author of Last Branch Standing, a deep dive into the inner workings of the Supreme Court. When Sarah is not hosting podcasts or writing newsletters, she’s probably sending uplifting stories about spiders to Jonah, who only pretends to love all animals. David French is a columnist for the New York Times. He’s a former senior editor of The Dispatch. He’s the author most recently of Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation. The podcast transcription below was generated using artificial intelligence and may include occasional errors or misspellings. Music 0:00 [handcuffs clink] Ready? Music 0:02 I was born ready. [upbeat music] Sarah Isgur 0:19 Welcome to Advisory Opinions. I'm Sarah Isgur. That's David French. Happy OT 2026, everyone. The new term of the Supreme Court has officially started. We even had our first order. If you go to the Supreme Court's website, it's so fresh. There's just one little order- David French 0:36 [laughs] Sarah Isgur 0:37 ... for OT 26, and it was 42 pages of cert denials. We'll highlight some of the best, I mean, the, the saddest cert denials, uh, as well as the cert grants that we got. And we have got Professor Sherif Girgis with us to break down all things Justice Samuel Alito as his new book comes out, and the news that had nothing to do with the book. Let's go. Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio. Join Now More We Think You’d Like