Impregnable Citadel of Technicality

Impregnable Citadel of Technicality

From Divided Argument by Will Baude, Dan Epps

June 8, 2026 · 1h 13m · Season 6 · Episode 18

About this episode

The episode discusses recent legal cases and developments related to election law and the Supreme Court's decisions.

After puzzling over an interesting follow-up question about Pitchford v. Cain, we unpack a summary vacatur in Whitton v. Dixon . We then spend a while breaking down the latest developments in Allen v. Milligan line, in which we discuss the future of the Purcell principle and whether the Court should be unusually attentive to public appearances in election cases. We finish with Sripetch v. Jarkesy , where the Court rejects a requirement that the SEC prove victims suffered pecuniary loss before seeking disgorgement, with specific attention to the interesting Seventh Amendment question raised in Justice Thomas's concurrence. Key Topics [00:03:23] - Listener question on Pitchford v. Cain , AEDPA, and procedural default [00:08:12] - Whitten v. Dixon : summary vacatur in a capital case and harmless-error review [00:12:44] - Justice Thomas’s dissent and the critique of selective error correction [00:22:46] - Allen v. Milligan / Alabama redistricting and the stay of the lower court injunction [00:27:24] - The Court’s restatement of Milligan and discussion of “colorblind constitution” language [00:32:30] - Purcell , election timing, and whether the doctrine is really about federal court…

People in this episode

Hosts: Will Baude, Dan Epps

Topics covered

  • election law
  • Supreme Court
  • disgorgement
  • redistricting
  • procedural default
  • capital cases

Keywords

  • Pitchford v. Cain
  • Whitton v. Dixon
  • Allen v. Milligan
  • Sripetch v. Jarkesy
  • disgorgement
  • Seventh Amendment
  • Purcell principle
  • election timing

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: SEC

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