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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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In this special episode of Rationally BASED, our host, law professor Ilan Wurman, is joined by guest co-hosts Sanjana Friedman and Judge Glock. Both write about homelessness, public encampments, and other disorders in America's progressive cities. Our hosts talk about the state of the homelessness-industrial complex in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Do NGOs have an incentive to perpetuate homelessness? Was Spencer Pratt right to describe homeless people as simply "drug addicts"? (Answer: mostly yes.) Our hosts talk about how progressives manipulate language to dull the mind and advance their radical agenda, for example by describing homeless persons as "unhoused." Our hosts then dive into legal issues surrounding "public nuisance": Can taxpayers and homeowners use public nuisance to fight back against public encampments and other insane progressive policies? And why are progressives so against public nuisance laws in these obvious contexts, when they use public nuisance laws for absurd purposes like suing energy companies for climate change or gun manufacturers for gun violence? Is this another example of progressives abusing the legal system? Tune in to find out.

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Our hosts Kathryn Johnson, Joshua Kleinfeld, and Ilan Wurman break down the controversial new DOJ Anti-Weaponization Fund. Is it legal? Is it justified? And after decades of Democrat “sue and settle” tactics, does it even matter?

The panel dives into how Obama and Biden administrations used collusive sue-and-settle tactics to funnel billions to allies, donors, and favored causes through settlement funds — from $3.5B for Native American tribes and aligned lawyers, to $1.3B for Hispanic farmers and aligned lawyers, to $1.2B from Volkswagen for electric cars, to a student debt end-run from Biden. Trump banned the practice in his first term — only to have the ban immediately reversed by Biden.

At the core of the episode is the defining question of the Trump era: When the Left breaks norms for power, should the Right turn the other cheek, respond combatively but differently, or engage in pure tit-for-tat? Is upholding already-broken norms just being suckers?

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Our hosts, law professor Ilan Wurman and Kathryn Johnson, are joined by guest co-host Joshua Kleinfeld, law professor at Scalia Law School at George Mason University, former professor at Northwestern, and a recent alum of the Trump Administration. They are also joined by Yonatan Green, author of Rogue Justice: The Rise of Judicial Supremacy in Israel. Our hosts talk about the modern phenomenon of left-wing "Juristocracy," that is, rule by judges--but only so long as they're on the political left. Our hosts explain why the Left must couch its ideas in false language like "democracy," and how they label obviously democratic reforms as "anti-democratic."

Israel is the cautionary tale for America. How did a group of Supreme Court Justices become so powerful in a system without any written constitution? First, they get rid of standing and justiciability requirements; second, they engage in "reasonableness" review of executive action; third, they invent a written constitution out of parliamentary legislation enacted by the opposition in the dead of night; and fourth, they change the rules as they go, and prevent new parliamentary legislation from undoing the old parliamentary legislation. Although Israel's case is one of judicial supremacy on steroids, there are clear warning signs for America. Oh, and the Israeli Left engages in lawfare, too--as when meritless criminal prosecutions were initiated against two members of Israel's judicial appointments committee when they spoke out against the judicial supremacist trends in their country. You won't want to miss this episode.

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