Adam Serwer

Texas Governor Rick Perry, whom Washington Post reporter Chris Cilizza dubbed the “no apologies” candidate, disavows entirely a book he wrote last year endorsing the view that New Deal reforms like Social Security are unconstitutional. Ian Millhiser writes, “After just a few days of embarrassing press, however, Perry now expects the country to believe that […]

Over at Greg’s I mock the right’s reaction to good news in Libya: McCain and Graham, both of whom had warm personal interactions with Ghadafi in the past, have now gotten exactly what they wanted from the administration’s decision to intervene. But GOP partisanship demands that they not acknowledge the president’s role in assembling the […]

The Obama administration is reportedly pressuring New York’s new Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to go easy on the banks and engage in the “settlements in lieu of prosecutions” approach to financial crime that started with the Bush administration. In an interview on Friday, Mr. Donovan defended his discussions with the attorney general, saying they were […]

I talk Rick Perry, civil liberties, and the genius of Louie CK with Conor Friedersdorf: A coda on our discussion on Perry’s decision to mandate the HPV vaccine, from Amanda Hess: Thanks to HPV, just about everyone has a sexually transmitted infection these days. About 20 million Americans are currently infected with one or more […]

Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, fresh off yesterday’s remarks that Barack Obama wants “to create dependency because it worked so well for him,” because he’s black, offers some thoughts on Afghanistan: The best way to get us out of Afghanistan is to grow our economy, change the regulations, have a vibrant, growing America where people […]

The political impact of the Obama administration’s decision to commit to discretion in deportation procedures may not be immediately obvious. No, most Latinos in the U.S. are not undocumented. However, most Latinos do have some kind of social connection to someone who is undocumented. According to a June 2011 poll by Latino Decisions, more than […]

Mansfield Frazier (via Sara Mayeux) reports that recidivism rates in Florida are lower for offenders who get back their right to vote post-incarceration. According to a recent report by The Florida Parole Commission, “the overall three-year recidivism rate based on all released inmates” was 33..1, while the recidivism rate for released prisoners who were given […]

Today’s drug war outrage comes from New York City, where possession of, or even admitted use of marijuana by parents results in child protective services taking your children away from you: Lauren Shapiro, director of the Brooklyn Family Defense Project, which defends most parents facing neglect charges in Family Court in Brooklyn, said more than […]

The Obama administration’s decision to defer deportation of undocumented immigrants who don’t post a threat to public safety is really a huge deal: What changed? Obama’s poll numbers among Latino voters began to slip. Both on the local and national level, immigration reform advocates upped the pressure, even protesting at the Obama administration’s headquarters in […]

Greg Sargent gets the full transcript of Senator Tom Coburn’s remarks on Obama and surmises that: I think what Coburn means here is that African Americans are more likely to need such programs than whites are, and by his own lights, Coburn actually thinks he’s being charitable to Obama here. He’s essentially saying that Obama’s […]