
JWI Presents: Anchoring Truths Podcast
The James Wilson Institute flagship recording: Anchoring Truths Podcast
Latest episodes

Nov 9, 2023 • 30min
Justice Amy Barrett & Rejecting Judicial Supremacy with Prof. Kevin Walsh
Anchoring Truths Podcast host Garrett Snedeker welcomes Prof. Kevin Walsh of Catholic Law for a briefing on Prof. Walsh's recent conversation with Justice Amy Barrett that touched on the institutional authority of the Supreme Court. Topics covered include Justice Barrett's apparent rejection of judicial supremacy and more thoroughly the debate over judicial supremacy versus departmentalism.
Kevin C. Walsh is a professor at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, and co-director of the Law School’s Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. Professor Walsh teaches federal courts, constitutional law, torts, agency and partnership, and a seminar on law in the Catholic intellectual tradition.
Professor Walsh’s scholarship focuses on doctrines that define the scope of federal judicial power, and has appeared in the Georgetown Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, New York University Law Review, and the Notre Dame Law Review, among other venues.
Prior to joining Catholic Law, Professor Walsh taught at the University of Richmond School of Law for thirteen years. He previously practiced law at Hunton & Williams LLP. Professor Walsh clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court of the United States and for Judge Paul V. Niemeyer on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the University of Notre Dame, and Dartmouth College.
Watch Prof. Walsh's discussion with Justice Barrett on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJUHuu2aoP4

Oct 27, 2023 • 55min
Pushing Roe Over the Brink with Pro-Life Legal Architect Clarke Forsythe
Clarke Forsythe joins Garrett Snedeker for a discussion of his new book on the history of the fall of Roe v. Wade and the rise of the pro-life movement. The book, co-authored with Alexandra DeSanctis, Pushing Roe v. Wade Over the Brink, chronicles the 50 year legal campaign against Roe v. Wade, the implications of the Dobbs decision overruling Roe, and the challenges for the cause for life in America going forward. This rich discussion reminds us of both where the pro-life movement has been and where it must go in order to save the lives of pre-born children.
Clarke Forsythe is Senior Counsel at Americans United for Life (AUL) and the author of Abuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v. Wade Encounter Books 2013, which was cited by the Supreme Court in its majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overruled Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
In his 38 years at AUL, Clarke has been co-counsel for parties in three U.S. Supreme Court cases and has argued cases before federal and state appellate courts. He has also testified before Congress and state legislatures. Clarke has authored or co-authored 20+ professional legal articles on constitutional and bioethical issues.
Purchase a copy of the book here.

Oct 13, 2023 • 50min
Depths of the Deep State: Theo Wold on Conservative Failure on the Administrative Law
Join the Anchoring Truths Podcast Team with our friend Theo Wold, the former Solicitor General of Idaho, for a quite personal account of the origins of the administrative state and the failure of the conservative movement to combat its growth. With key insights derived from his experience working in the Trump Administration, Wold helps illuminate just how many challenges the administrative bureaucracy poses to a future Republican President, as well as the potential path forward. This is an episode you will not want to miss.
Before serving as Idaho's Solicitor General, Wold served as the Acting-Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy under President Donald Trump. Before working in the Trump Administration, Wold served as Deputy Chief Counsel to United States Senator Mike Lee on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Theo Wold's analysis is best fleshed out in his recent essay "A Century of Impotency: Conservative Failure and the Administrative State", as featured in the Claremont Institute's recently published volume Up from Conservativism. We encourage our listeners to read both Wold's essay and the book in its entirety.

Sep 28, 2023 • 46min
Cryptocurrency & Politics with Zeke Faux
Join Bloomberg Investigative reporter Zeke Faux and the Anchoring Truths Podcast team for a deep dive into his first groundbreaking book Number Go Up, an engrossing account of the cryptocurrency craze, and how Sam Bankman-Fried and a titular cast of nerds, crypto visionaries and swindlers turned virtual coins into trillions of dollars. With key insights into the rise and fall of the crypto craze and those swallowed by it, we highly encourage our listeners to listen to this week’s episode.
Zeke Faux is an investigative reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg News in New York. He's a winner of the Gerald Loeb award for explanatory business journalism and the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel award, and a finalist for a National Magazine Award. Faux lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and their three children.

Sep 15, 2023 • 50min
Judge Douglas Ginsburg on New Documentary "We Hold These Truths"
Judge Douglas Ginsburg joins the Anchoring Truths Podcast for an in-depth discussion of the new documentary he shaped, We Hold These Truths, a story of the Declaration of Independence's global legacy. Judge Ginsburg traveled the world to film the documentary, which aired on PBS over Independence Day. It's now available to watch free of charge on YouTube.
Judge Ginsburg has served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit since 1986. Before joining the court, he served in the Reagan Justice Department. He has taught at the University of Chicago Law School, Columbia Law School, New York Law School, and the Scalia Law School.
Watch the documentary here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc2Ij8NhP2E
More information on the documentary: https://www.pbs.org/show/we-hold-these-truths-global-quest-liberty/

Sep 1, 2023 • 46min
Political Economy & the Common Good with Prof. Alexander Salter
The AT Podcast continues with a mini-series “The Right Rethinks Economics" featuring guest author Prof. Alexander Salter. Prof. Salter has sought to bridge a gap in the the discourse between the camp that represents the received wisdom broadly supportive of economic liberty and the camp that considers doctrinaire defenses of economic liberty to be ill-suited, at least on their own, for the challenges of the present.
Prof. Salter is the Georgie G. Snyder Associate Professor of Economics in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. His new book that we’ll be discussing is titled The Political Economy of Distributism: Property, Liberty, and the Common Good, published by Catholic University of America Press.
Prof. Salter took his PhD and MA in economics from George Mason University and earned a BA from Occidental.

Aug 15, 2023 • 1h 3min
Tyranny Inc. with Sohrab Ahmari
As part of an ongoing conversation surrounding the rethinking of economic policy on the American right, Compact Magazine editor Sohrab Ahmari joins host Garrett Snedeker and JWI Intern Victoria Baker to discuss his new book, Tyranny, Inc. Their discussion touches on the balance of power between capital and labor across varying periods of economic history, the potential for private corporations to pose a threat to individual liberty, and the appropriate role for unions in America's economic and political life.

Jul 28, 2023 • 46min
Clarence Thomas: The People's Justice with Judge Amul Thapar
Join Judge Amul Thapar and the Anchoring Truths Podcast team for a deep dive into Judge Thapar's new book on Justice Clarence Thomas, "The People's Justice." The book delves into some of Justice Thomas's opinions that tell the fascinating stories of the litigants behind the cases.

Jul 14, 2023 • 1h 1min
John Yoo on Recent SCOTUS Term & Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court
Prof. John Yoo of California's Berkeley Law School joins the pod for a light-hearted and spirited discussion of his new, co-authored book "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court" as well as the recent decisions of the Supreme Court in its OT 2022 term.
(0:01:24) Why write the book?
(0:04:17) Books you aren’t supposed to read
(0:08:03) Brown v. Board and the Harvard Admissions case
(0:13:25) Lochner Era and “freedom of contract”
(0:24:06) Commerce Clause, future litigation on economic rights,
administrative agencies
(0:32:23) Contrasts between legal positivism and natural law
(0:38:09) Counterfactual possibilities, what drives progressive
jurisprudence vs. originalism
(0:46:40) Dobbs leak
(0:56:05) Closing segment, defining legacy of the Roberts court

Jun 30, 2023 • 52min
Scalia: Rise to Greatness with James Rosen
James Rosen, author of Scalia: Rise to Greatness, and Chief White House Correspondent for Newsmax, joins host Garrett Snedeker for an insider's look at Antonin Scalia's life before he became Justice Scalia. Their discussion touches on Scalia's upbringing in New York, his early positions in the Nixon and Ford White Houses, his tenure as a law professor, and those early years as a judge on the D.C. Circuit.
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