Adam Serwer

In 1989, Elena Kagan filed an amicus brief arguing that 2 Live Crew’s album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be, which had been banned by a federal judge because of its sexual content, wasn’t obscene in part because no one could possibly be aroused by it. “Nasty does not physically excite anyone who hears it,” […]

Rush Limbaugh, arguing that the Obama administration is prolonging the recession as “payback” against white people: He said somebody else said, ‘This is payback,’ meaning, ‘All right, look. We don’t care if it’s the New Black Panthers or whoever it is. Black people in this country have never, ever had a fair shake. This is […]

Guantanamo Bay detainee Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi, Osama bin Laden‘s former chef, has given the Obama administration its first conviction by military commission, pleading guilty to providing material support for terrorism. As Spencer Ackerman reports, al-Qosi wasn’t the most fearsome character: But the former al-Qaeda chef wasn’t exactly cooking up anthrax in his kitchen. “During […]

More on “acting white” from Jamelle Bouie. The revamped military commissions secure their first conviction, against Osama bin Laden‘s cook. Another reason to like the Fake AP Style Book more. Mitt Romney‘s efforts to show he has a grasp on foreign affairs continue to fail. But at least he knows what he’s doing on health […]

New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio is now demanding that his Democratic opponent, Andrew Cuomo, investigate the Cordoba Initiative, the organization headed by Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf that is building an Islamic Center near Ground Zero: “We’re asking the attorney general to exert his authority to investigate the sources of these donations … to […]

As I noted earlier this morning, the Justice Department has challenged Arizona’s draconian immigration law on the grounds that it infringes on the federal government’s authority to enforce immigration laws, not on the basis of civil rights. I noted that, given the circumstances, this might be a smart political choice. A coalition of civil-rights groups […]

Well this seems like a rather anti-Semitic editorial from the Washington Times: Judaism’s meager contribution to human technological advancement is no accident. In his new book “The Closing of the Jewish Mind,” former Voice of America director Robert Reilly describes the brief flourishing of intellectualism in Jewish Spain 1,000 years ago before it was brutally […]

Mariana Cotlear takes issue with James McWilliams‘ claim that a McDonald’s Big Mac is healthier than a Chipotle burrito: This is real food. This is food that doesn’t make you feel sick after eating it. This is food that actually fills you up and doesn’t produce a sugar spike which will make you crave more […]

After months of trying, conservative complaints about the New Black Panther Party voter-suppression case have finally begun to trickle into the mainstream press. Between the recession and the oil spill, chances are you may be a little behind on the subject, so I’ve put together a primer that includes reporting from me and others who […]

Race continues to play a role in the immigration debate, but with its challenge yesterday, the Justice Department made it clear it’s one they’d rather avoid. Despite public statements from the president himself and Attorney General Eric Holder expressing concerns that the law could lead to racial profiling, the federal challenge to Arizona’s draconian immigration […]