rationally BASED

Center of the American Experiment
  • 4.7 (106)
  • Politics

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

  1. 2d ago

    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!

  2. Jul 23

    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!

  3. Jul 16

    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!

  4. Jul 9

    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!

  5. Jul 6

    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!

  6. Jul 1

    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!

  7. Jun 29

    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!

  8. Jun 25

    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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4.7
out of 5
106 Ratings

About

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

Information

  • Creator
    Center of the American Experiment
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    34
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 rationally BASED
  • Show Website
    rationally BASED

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