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In Dissent

Pacific Legal 3 Episodes Jun 30, 2026

In Dissent traces the founding ideals of the Declaration of Independence from the revolutionary moment of their birth to the courtrooms where they’ve been tested, twisted, and sometimes abandoned. Each episode pairs vivid historical storytelling—a man riding through the night to break a deadlocked vote, a printer setting type for a document that could get him hanged—with landmark Supreme Court cases that reveal the distance between America’s founding promise and its legal reality.

Episodes

The Constitution Up in Smoke Jun 30, 2026 00:34:55 The Declaration says that the government enjoys only those “just powers” delegated to them by the people. Through the Constitution, the American people gave certain limited powers to the national government and reserved the rest to the states or the people. Yet Congress, with the Supreme Court’s help, has dramatically expanded its power to regulate Americans’ lives through a broad interpretation o

We Can Sue the Government, Right? Jun 16, 2026 00:35:19 Governments derive powers from “the consent of the governed.” Don’t they? In one of the earliest constitutional cases, the Supreme Court seemed to say so. But the Eleventh Amendment threw a wrench in it all, making it exceptionally difficult for us to hold the government accountable in the courts when it violates our rights. In Episode 3, Georgetown Law Professor Randy Barnett, NYT columnist and a

The Pursuit of Happiness Jun 2, 2026 00:22:34 To the Framers, happiness didn’t just mean fun. It meant the pursuit of a good life through hard work, discipline, and constant self-assessment. In Episode 2, National Constitution Center CEO Emeritus Jeffrey Rosen, attorney and author Timothy Sandefur, and Supreme Court advocate Alan Gura tell us what the “pursuit of happiness” meant, how that promise has been enshrined in the Constitution, and h

The First Great American Dissent May 20, 2026 00:24:56 A man rushing on horseback in the dead of night to break a deadlocked vote. A printer faced with the terrifying ramifications of printing an incendiary document. And beleaguered troops—underfed, underpaid, and on the verge of defeat.  In hindsight, the American Independence seems inevitable. But at the time, it was anything but. In the opening episode, Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Ellis, historian

Welcome to In Dissent May 20, 2026 00:00:56 In Dissent traces the founding ideals of the Declaration of Independence from the revolutionary moment of their birth to the courtrooms where they’ve been tested, twisted, and sometimes abandoned. Each episode pairs vivid historical storytelling—a man riding through the night to break a deadlocked vote, a printer setting type for a document that could get him hanged—with landmark Supreme Court cas

In Dissent

Episodes

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