December 12, 2018

State Bills of Rights Have the Real Protections

By presidential proclamation, December 15 is Bill of Rights Day.  President Donald Trump urges Americans to take time to "recognize the key role of the [federal] Bill of Rights in protecting our individual liberties and limiting the po...

September 2, 2018

When Law and Politics Become One

Most Americans believe that politics and law are separate entities.  This was the position of Aristotle, who treated politics as a study in itself, and Hugo Grotius, the eminent Dutch scholar of the seventeenth century who developed the the...

July 15, 2018

Shifting the Roe Burden Back to Schumer

Much like King Nebuchadnezzar's instructions to the three Hebrew boys, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has telegraphed to Judge Brett Kavanaugh a way out of the fiery furnace of confirmation.  Kavanaugh need not bow down to a golden imag...

February 15, 2018

Jeremy Bentham and the Judges

February 15 marks the 270th birthday of the English philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham.  Bentham is typically remembered for his formulation of the principle of utility: the greatest happiness of the greatest number as the measu...

June 3, 2016

The Dark Side of Brown

This year​ marks the 62nd anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, in which a unanimous Supreme Court held that “segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race” violated the equal protection clause of the 14...

November 18, 2015

Nullification and the Kentucky Resolution of 1798

Because the United States was founded as a constitutional republic -- one based on certain specific principles, not power or privilege -- Americans of all eras frequently raise concerns about federal authority that bear resemblance to debates from ea...