This week, we’re dissecting the 2026 Supreme Court’s obsession with 1798. If you think Calder v. Bull was just a dusty 1L memory about a probate dispute, think again. If Justice Thomas is reading the tea leaves, revisiting ancient history may be the future of the bench.

From the basics of ex post facto to the allegedly modern right to actually speak in your own defense, we’re tracing the line from the Founders to the October 2025 term.

This episode covers two cases:

• Ellingburg v. United States: Can you be fined for something that wasn’t illegal when you did it? Does it matter if it’s just a civil penalty? We discuss why Justice Thomas is basically ghostwriting for Justice Samuel Chase and how maybe, just maybe, natural law is suddenly the most relevant doctrine in a 2026 appellate brief.
• Villarreal v. Texas: What happens when a "fundamental" right is younger than the Justices on the bench? We tackle the 6th Amendment conflict of this year: the right to testify vs. the overnight gag order.

Dust off your copy of the Constitution and settle in. We're serving up heavy Originalism with a side of Natural Rights. Whether you’re a FedSoc regular or a Living Constitutionalist, you can’t afford to miss this jurisdictional vibe shift.

Join the litigators of the Texas Public Policy Foundation for the premiere of Rightly Decided as we dissect why the Supreme Court ruled that the president cannot use the IEEPA to unilaterally impose tariffs. We explore the use of the major questions doctrine and discuss the different approaches each justice on the Court takes—all while acknowledging the Nondelegation Doctrine lurking in the shadows…

Is the president a babysitter with a credit card? Is there a “major questions” exception to the major questions doctrine? How clear does Congress have to be when it delegates its enumerated powers to the president?

What we cover in this episode:
🏛️ The 6–3 SCOTUS ruling: Why the IEEPA doesn't authorize global tariffs
⚖️ The "Major Questions" plurality and the limits of emergency authority
🔮 The future of the major questions doctrine and nondelegation of congressional authority