There are many reasons to be concerned about both the impact of money on our political process and the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United. But critics of Citizens United, including those calling for a constitutional amendment to overrule it, have too often made the mistake of grounding their argument...

Barack Obama is a Socialist who consorts with domestic terrorists. He is a Muslim who was born in Kenya and is therefore not constitutionally eligible to be president. He wants to import homosexuals, destroy the Second Amendment, and encourage abortions. According to Sean Hannity, he has thrown Israel under a...

In his speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, last week, President Obama proclaimed that Republican economic policy -- trickle-down, supply-side, tax-cutting economics -- "doesn't work." It has been tried, he said, and it "has never worked." Is he right? Or is this just more political blather? To see, we need to go...

To whom was President Obama speaking this week in his ground-breaking speech in Osawatomie, Kansas? I believe he was speaking directly to the Concerned Majority. At this moment in our nation's history, the vast majority of Americans are concerned. They are concerned about the dysfunction of their government, the shakiness...

The Department of Justice has proposed federal regulations that would authorize the United States government to lie to the American people. This sounds bad, but in truth it's a big step forward. In the past, the government would simply have lied, without announcing its intention to do so. This was...

In a recent conversation at the Aspen Institute's 2011 Washington D.C.'s Ideas Forum, Justice Antonin Scalia offered some interesting observations about his theory of originalism and the meaning of the First Amendment.

During the course of the conversation, Justice Scalia apparently brought up the Supreme Court's landmark 1964 decision in...

Five Chiefs refers to the five Chief Justices Justice John Paul Stevens encountered during the course of his more than 60-year career as a law clerk, lawyer, federal court of appeals judge, and justice on the Supreme Court. Justice Stevens offers lively and engaging insights about each of the five...

Today is Constitution Day. It is a day to reflect, at least for a moment, on the American Constitution and how it has helped to shape our nation over more than two centuries. In simplest form, of course, the Constitution sets forth the rules of governance. It stipulates that there...

I co-authored this piece with Professor William Marshall of the North Carolina School of Law. It was also published online today by the American Constitution Society.

For the past 40 years, political conservatives have effectively framed the national debate over constitutional interpretation. According to the conservatives' narrative, their approach to...

As the clock runs down toward the witching hour on August 2, I see three possible solutions to the crisis. First, the Republicans and Democrats in Congress can agree on a compromise plan that raises the debt ceiling for a reasonable period of time and deals with at least some...

A threat is an expression of intention to inflict harm on others unless the target of the threat agrees to do what the person making the threat demands. A threat uses coercion rather than persuasion to effect change. As a general rule, democratic governments do not negotiate with those who...

As a longtime supporter and colleague of Barack Obama at the University of Chicago, as well as an informal adviser to his 2008 campaign, I had high hopes that he would restore the balance between government secrecy and government transparency that had been lost under George W. Bush, and that...

New York State has taken an important step forward in our nation's never-ending quest to remake ourselves as a more decent, more inclusive, more just and more moral society. Looking back from the future, our grandchildren will surely see the legal recognition of same-sex marriage as an inspiring chapter in...

The Framers of the American Constitution were visionaries. They designed our Constitution to endure. They sought not only to address the specific challenges facing the nation during their lifetimes, but also to establish the foundational principles that would sustain and guide the new nation into an uncertain future.

The...

If anyone needs proof of how destructively polarized national politics has become, one need only consider yesterday's vote in the Senate on President Obama's nomination of Goodwin Liu to serve on the United States Court of Appeals. First, though, a few words on the filibuster. Under Senate rules, a minority...

In a decision earlier this week in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, the five conservative Justices on the Supreme Court (Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito) carved a large hole out of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Although the issue in the case was subtle, the...

A central question in the legal debate over the constitutionality of laws that discriminate against gays and lesbians (such as the federal Defense of Marriage Act) turns on the appropriate standard a court should apply in deciding whether the government's interest in treating gays and lesbians differently from other Americans...

The so-called SHIELD Act, which has been introduced in both Houses of Congress, would amend the Espionage Act of 1917 to make it a crime for any person knowingly and willfully to disseminate, in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States," any classified information... concerning...

The most ringing phrase in all of American history is Thomas Jefferson's bold statement in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal." Translating that aspiration into law has been a challenge. At the time the Constitution was adopted, most Americans did not have equal rights under the...

This is an exchange I had a few days ago with a good friend (pseudonym "Jones" ) about my post last week about DADT (DADT and the Tyranny of the Minority):

Jones: Having spent four years in the Navy, I do believe there were gay sailors on board the aircraft...