For a semisimple Lie group G satisfying the equal-rank condition, the most basic family of unitary irreducible representations is the discrete series found by Harish-Chandra. In our work here we study some of the branching laws for discrete series when restricted to a subgroup H of the same type by combining classical results with recent work of Kobayashi; in particular, we prove discrete decomposability under Harish-Chandra’s condition of cusp form on the reproducing kernel. We show a relation between discrete decomposability and representing certain intertwining operators in terms of differential operators.