In 1980, John Paul Stevens stood at the center of the Supreme Court. Today, he is its most left-wing member — and he hasn’t changed.
Cass Sunstein
Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard and the author of more than a dozen books, including After the Rights Revolution, Designing Democracy, and The Cost-Benefit State. From 2009 to 2012, he served in the Obama administration as administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Posted inArticle
The Problem with Predictability
Right-wing activists have made it all too clear that they want President George W. Bush to appoint Supreme Court justices who are “predictable.” The longtime refrain of “No more David Souters” has been joined by “No more Anthony Kennedys.” Some groups demand a nominee who does not believe that the Constitution protects abortion or gay […]
Posted inSpecial Report
Economic Security: A Human Right
Are social and economic rights foreign to American traditions? Are they inconsistent with our laissez-faire freedom-loving culture? Consider a defining moment in our nation’s history, when national security was also threatened and when an American president argued that freedom itself required social and economic rights. In our own day, we should be paying close attention […]
Posted inFeatures
The Warrior’s Tale
The Clinton Wars By Sidney Blumenthal, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 822 pages, $30.00 Running for the Senate in the summer of 2000, Hillary Clinton said she was a “Rorschach test.” In fact, both of the Clintons continue to serve as a kind of national Rorschach. Was Bill Clinton an extraordinarily successful president, responsible for remarkable […]
Posted inFeatures
The Right-Wing Assault
Since the election of President Reagan, a disciplined, carefully orchestrated and quite self-conscious effort by high-level Republican officials in the White House and the Senate has radically transformed the federal judiciary. For more than two decades, Republican leaders have had a clear agenda for the nation’s courts: to reduce the powers of the federal government; […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Is Violent Speech a Right?
Advocacy of illegal violence to kill people is not necessarily constitutionally protected speech.
Posted inFeatures
The Return of States’ Rights
What are the powers of the national government? When is the nation allowed to act? When must the states act instead? These are not trivial issues. The answers will determine the ultimate fate of measures safeguarding the environment, protecting consumers, upholding civil rights, preventing violence against women, protecting endangered species, and defining criminal conduct in […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Unchecked and Unbalanced
Kenneth Starr’s behavior as independent counsel follows a pattern set in other investigations: the problem lies in the incentives and unchecked power of the office.
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Ideas, Yes; Assaults, No
The First Amendment protects the exchange of ideas, not verbal assaults.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Racism and Race-Conscious Remedies
An exchange on whether American social and economic policy should emphasize special programs for blacks and other racial minorities or a more universal approach aimed equally at disadvantaged whites.