For the past three years, I -- and many others, including my colleagues at the Rule of Law Institute -- have argued that the shameless human rights abuses of the Pakistani government would undermine the government's efforts to address violent extremism. Like U.S. policies that favor...

On the same day that the Washington Post revealed that our federal government is "is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators," the District of Columbia continues to reel from

This Veterans' Day, executive impunity for human rights abuses is once again in the news. Former President George W. Bush openly admitted authorizing techniques long recognized as torture in his recent memoir, and this week, Attorney General Eric Holder resigned the opportunity to file criminal charges relating to the CIA's...

Last week marked the eighth anniversary of memos written by Justice Department lawyers to authorize cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment of detainees. The Bush administration's abuses were the beginning of a dismal chapter in American history. This unhappy anniversary offers a sad reminder that this chapter remains open.

To restore...

The week before last, The Washington Post concluded a two-year investigation of our government's domestic spying activities, revealing a lack of accountability pervading its far-flung and vast operations. Last Wednesday, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, confirming that the FBI is...

Despite promises of change, the Obama administration has proven itself either unwilling--or unable--to shift the paradigm driving increasingly invasive surveillance, or increasingly pervasive profiling according to race, religion, and national origin. Nearly halfway through the Obama administration's term, the battle to banish the Bush administration's policy legacy remains largely...

In the retirement of Justice Stevens, President Obama has an immense opportunity -- should his Administration demonstrate the courage to engage it -- to begin the lagging project of reshaping a key Washington institution, while also mobilizing his liberal base heading into the mid-term elections.

After 35 years...

Nearly a decade ago, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) stood alone as the Senate's constitutional conscience. Casting the only dissenting vote against passage of the PATRIOT Act in 2001, he was powerless to stop an opportunistic power grab by neo-conservatives who had long sought, well before the tragedy of...

We have failed to even investigate torturers, yet we have prosecuted and imprisoned millions for lesser offenses. And we allow mass murderers the benefit of constitutional rights that we deny detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. Until policymakers examine and fix these double standards, they will continue to undermine our...

Despite our Founders' vision of independent powers exercising checks & balances to prevent a "tyranny of the majority," every branch of the federal government acted last month to cast its lot with torturers. But even though President Obama, Congress and the Court have united to hide evidence of high-level...

Over the past century, our nation has triumphed over two sets of aspiring global tyrants: the axis powers in WWII, and the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Our victories over these foes were, in each case, world-historical in scale and importance. Yet within less than a century, we now...

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano recently highlighted her department's efforts to reach out to build "stronger relationships with Arab and Muslim Americans, as well as South Asian communities across the country," seemingly reflecting an awareness of how the war on terror has stigmatized and cast irrational suspicion on...

A family vacation over Independence Day offered a poignant reminder of why, over 30 years ago, my parents sought refuge in the U.S. Fleeing the racial hostility they encountered in Britain after escaping the brutality of the Indian Subcontinent's Partition, they found in rural Missouri economic opportunity, political freedom, and...

Sixty years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson left Washington to pursue what he later called "the most important, enduring, and constructive work of [his] life": prosecuting international war crimes committed during WWII. Justice Jackson helped usher in a new international regime that promised to help deter human rights...

Whether defined in terms of a system representing the will of the people, or as one of divided powers exercising checks and balances, our government claims legitimacy based on its accountability. That accountability, in turn, relies on transparency. It is no accident that, in light of its historical function as...

Parts I (The Politicization of Voting Rights) and II (The Triumph of Politics Over Law) of this series demonstrated how the Supreme Court, under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, has usurped what once passed for law in pursuit of a conservative political agenda. As noted by...

Any vacancy on the Supreme Court, regardless of the historical context, presents questions of monumental significance. With life tenure and the power to interpret the Constitution as requiring whatever they collectively see fit, the Court's Justices are among our nation's most powerful figures.

But as observers examine potential...

When taking the oath of office last month, President Obama declared to "those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents...that, 'Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.'" His commitment to resisting extremism reflects the...

As Congress and the Obama Administration start to clean the mess left by Bush, Cheney, and their respective minions, Washington's highest priorities will include restoring the Rule of Law. A fundamental bedrock of modern democracy, it has withered under a multi-faceted assault by the White House entailing executive secrecy,...

In the wake of Barack Obama's election to the presidency, many progressives have bemoaned the seeming betrayal of his electoral mandate by the political moderation apparent in the President-Elect's early appointments. These concerns stem from fundamental misimpressions about his capacity: Obama will indeed introduce change to Washington, but his...