Adam Serwer

Dave Weigel makes a point no one should ever forget: Why was King so unpopular in 1966? You could read Taylor Branch or Rick Perlstein, and it is Friday, so you might have the time. The short version: In 1965 and 1966, King started working on housing in northern states, starting in Chicago. The 1966 […]

For some silly, masochistic reason, I’ve spent the last few weeks wading through the mid-1990s Spider-Man clone saga. The basic premise is that the Peter Parker we know and love as Spider-Man is not actually Spider-Man. Instead, following a fight with his clone, the real Peter Parker walked away believing he was the clone, while […]

Texas Governor Rick Perry has joined the other two top-tier Republican presidential candidates, Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann, in signing the National Organization for Marriage’s Pledge to “appoint a presidential commission to investigate harassment of traditional marriage supporters,” support an anti-marriage-equality amendment to the Constitution, and overturn same-sex marriage in […]

The indictment of Cody Crawford, who allegedly attempted to burn down a mosque in Oregon, is notable for a few reasons beyond the fact of the alleged crime itself. Crawford is alleged to have targeted the mosque in part because he recognized Mohamud Osman Mohamud, who was caught and charged in an FBI sting plot […]

That’s the basic conclusion of a challenge to the Voting Rights Act by the state of Arizona, which is seeking to overturn the law as unconstitutional. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act mandates that certain jurisdictions with a history of racial problems have their election changes subject to “preclearance” by the Justice Department. The […]

Eyewitness misidentification is a leading factor in wrongful convictions — according to the Innocence Project, more than 75 percent of DNA exonerations involved cases of eyewitness misidentification. In what the Innocence Project called a landmark ruling earlier this week, New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart J. Rabner wrote a long opinion holding that the […]

A few days ago National Review published a silly piece by Tevi Troy criticizing President Obama’s vacation reading list because it was light on Jonah Goldberg books. He seemed to think this argument from Mickey Kaus, that Obama’s reading list was “heavy on the wrenching stories of immigrant experiences, something the President already knows quite […]

Alyssa Rosenberg has some further thoughts on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl character archetype: He and I were talking about this a little bit a couple of days ago, and while I think it’s pretty clear why MPDGs are a fantasy for men, I also think the archetype has some utility for women. After decades […]

So this is going to be a massively spoiler-heavy post, so those of you who haven’t read A Dance With Dragons yet or are fans of the TV series Game of Thrones and don’t want some major things to be revealed should stop. Reading. Now.

The Civil Rights Division has announced that it’s charging an Oregon man with allegedly setting a mosque in Corvallis on fire. The larger context here is that the mosque was attended by Mohamud Osman Mohamud, the 19-year old who was arrested in a plot to bomb a Portland Christmas tree that was in actuality a […]