Adam Serwer

Following last Friday’s post on the two separate torture civil cases former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is facing, a third case involving two more American citizens working for an Iraqi contractor who claim they were tortured while detained in Iraq was given the go-ahead by a federal judge. That makes three cases in which Americans […]

Months ago, there was a small controversy over Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann signing a pledge put forth by social conservatives in Iowa that stated “black child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African American baby born after […]

Drew Westen’s piece yesterday highlighting Obama’s failure to tell an effective “story” that would have led to Congress laying down and embracing a more progressive agenda is probably a cathartic read for liberals disappointed with Obama. It does, however, have quite a few problems — namely the notion that “the public was desperate for a […]

I’m traveling today, so posting will be a bit sporadic. Things will be back to normal tomorrow.

Adam Winkler has an interesting post on the legal fight over the Affordable Care Act and the “gotcha” question the conservatives are likely to ask: What are the limits of the commerce clause if the mandate is constitutional? Some lawyers defending the mandate agree that there really aren’t many, if any, limits on Congress’s power […]

Even if you’re an American citizen, the government can detain you indefinitely and torture you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Cutting through the legalese, that’s the gist of the argument lawyers for former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are arguing in two cases involving the indefinite detention and alleged abuse of two American […]

This part of Andrew Sullivan’s defense of Obama simply isn’t true: On policy: ending the US torture regime; prevention of a second Great Depression; enacting universal healthcare; taking the first serious steps toward reining in healthcare costs; two new female Supreme Court Justices; ending the gay ban in the military; ending the Iraq war; justifying […]

Obama wants to take whitey’s money. Obama wants to take whitey’s money. Obama wants to take whitey’s money. Obama wants to take whitey’s money. Obama wants to take whitey’s money. Obama wants to take whitey’s money. Obama wants to take whitey’s money. Obama wants to take whitey’s money. Obama wants to take whitey’s money. Obama […]

I want to address a separate claim from Kevin Drum’s defense of Obama’s effectiveness as a politician, specifically Drum’s argument that “in two years Obama has done more to enact a liberal agenda than George Bush did for the conservative agenda in eight.” Again, I don’t think Bush was particularly effective. Wringing 60 votes for […]

Part of the Obama administration’s counter-radicalization strategy released yesterday obliquely references the controversy over anti-Muslim terrorism “experts” who have received generous federal grants for Islamophobic “training” of local law enforcement: Government and law enforcement at the local level have well-established relationships with communities, developed through years of consistent engagement, and therefore can effectively build partnerships […]