Will a recent lawsuit result in Congress's most dramatic upheaval in almost a hundred years? Probably not, but that's the quixotic hope of the parties who brought the case. They think that the U.S. House of Representatives is unconstitutional in its current form, and that the only solution is...

Who declared that the country's legal system is "poorly organized if a judge enjoys the dangerous privilege of interpreting the law or adding to its provisions?" Was it Senator Lindsey Graham last week, questioning Sonia Sotomayor about her supposed "judicial activism?" Or perhaps Justice Antonin Scalia in one of his...

For generations after the Civil War, Southern blacks were denied the right to vote through an array of clever stratagems. Poll taxes, grandfather clauses, literacy tests, quizzes about U.S. history, and good moral character requirements -- combined with occasional brute force -- kept Southern electorates lily-white. In 1965, only seven...

To the extent Democrats think about Bush v. Gore these days, they remember it as the worst Supreme Court decision in decades -- a nakedly partisan ruling by five conservative justices hell-bent on installing George W. Bush in the White House. Bush v. Gore was all this and more,...

The U.S. House and Senate are both primed to pass the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009. If enacted, the bill would give the District a voting Representative (instead of its current nonvoting Delegate) in the House. Utah would also obtain an additional House seat, thus...

About two months ago, I wrote a column hoping for success but predicting failure for California's Proposition 11, which would make an independent citizen commission (instead of the state legislature) responsible for determining state legislative district lines. Not allowing self-interested politicians to draw their own districts' lines is...

While at an election-watching party in D.C. last night, a few friends and I had an idea: Why not walk to the White House, just a few blocks away, and take some photos by its gates? We didn't think we were the only ones to think of this, but nothing...

Government reform issues have emerged as unlikely hotspots in this presidential campaign. Earmarks, the influence of lobbyists, governmental transparency, campaign finance - all topics typically of interest only to incorrigible policy wonks - are now the subject of dueling ads and intense media scrutiny. I therefore decided to take a...

For the second time in four years -- and the fifth time in a generation -- California voters will be asked in November to approve a new procedure for drawing electoral districts. Proposition 11 would create a redistricting commission made up of 14 regular citizens. These citizens, chosen through an...

The conventional wisdom says there are two kinds of campaign commercials: positive ads, which elaborate on a candidate's own strengths, and negative ads, which shine a spotlight on an opponent's weaknesses. Running positive ads is supposedly evidence of political virtue (or a comfortable lead in the polls), while...

Washington, D.C., one of the country's most violent and unsafe cities, has recently decided to crack down on... jaywalking. While gunshots ring out and drug deals are executed just blocks away, police officers spend entire days nabbing pedestrians who cross streets a little too soon or a little...

Conservatives' cries of outrage in response to the California Supreme Court's recent decision recognizing same-sex marriage were as shrill as they were predictable. William Kristol accused the court of "ma[king] social policy from the bench." Dinesh D'Souza characterized the decision as a "legal fraud," having "little to...

As expected, Sen. Hillary Clinton crushed Sen. Barack Obama in yesterday's West Virginia primary. This result means very little, of course. Obama still has the most pledged delegates, the most superdelegates, and the most popular votes, and is still firmly on track to capture the Democratic Party's presidential nomination....

In 2005, Indiana passed a law requiring all citizens to show a photo ID before being allowed to vote. The law was enacted on a strict party line; every Republican in the state legislature voted in favor, and every Democrat voted against. The law was sharply criticized for responding to...