Scott Lemieux

In response to Dana Priest‘s superb report about our national-security state, Glenn Greenwald says that “we keep sacrificing our privacy to the always-growing National Security State in exchange for less security.” This important point is made in much more detail in Stephen Holmes‘s unfortunately neglected The Matador’s Cape. Many people simply assume that there’s a […]

To follow up on Monica’s post about Dana Goldstein‘s terrific article about the coming battle over contraception, it’s also important to emphasize what Republican opposition to contraception reveals about cultural conservatism. As Atrios says, there’s a common argument among pundits who fancy themselves centrists on abortion — E.J. Dionne and Will Saletan, for instance — […]

The problem with Judge Joseph Tauro’s opinion holding that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional isn’t the policy outcome. DOMA was a disgrace, and signing it was one of the low points of the Clinton administration and one of many low points of recent Republican Congresses. The problem is that one of his justifications […]

For the reasons cited by Barbara O’Brien, this would-be Elena Kagan “scandal” about changed wording in an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists position paper — being perpetuated by the likes of world’s-phoniest-libertarian Glenn Reynolds — is a complete joke. There’s no contradiction between the two drafts, because D&X abortions are, in fact, not medically […]

To follow up on Pema‘s important post below, it’s important to note that absolutely nothing in the Heller decision — whose reading of the Second Amendment was applied to the states by the Supreme Court yesterday — suggests that laws preventing persons convicted of domestic-abuse offenses from owning handguns is unconstitutional. Scalia‘s opinion strongly suggested […]

I’m somewhat reluctant to chime in on Chait v. Fernholz, as I’m an agnostic in the soccer culture wars — mildly interested in the World Cup, not a big soccer fan but probably would be if I grew up in a more soccer-crazy environment. I even saw a dozen or so NASL games growing up. […]

It seems about right that Jeff Sessions would bring up Elana Kagan‘s undergraduate thesis as alleged evidence that she is a socialist. When you’re making arguments so dumb that Erick Erickson makes them too, it should signal how seriously they should be taken. I’ve already dealt with his vacuous claims about judges being neutral umpires […]

I have little to add to Adam‘s thorough and persuasive take on the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday on the “material support” law. He does raise an interesting point, however, in noting that Justice Stevens joined the Court’s five conservatives, raising questions about whether liberals might “want to rethink their characterization of Justice Stevens as the […]

As many of you know, one of the outcomes produced by the World’s Worst Legislative Body has been a chronically understaffed executive branch. A particularly striking example of this can be found at the National Labor Relations Board, which was forced for more than two years to work without even a three-member quorum (let alone […]

The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (EDPA), among other restrictions on civil liberties, imposed a one-year statute of limitations on federal habeas corpus filings for those convicted under state law, subject to a few very narrow exceptions. In order for this provision to not produce gross injustice there must be adequate counsel […]