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...

The Party

Last Tuesday, after President-Elect Obama poetically declared victory in the 2008 presidential election, a chanting & dancing crowd of thousands remained in front of the White House until the wee hours. Celebrations erupted not just in every quadrant of the capital, or even every major city in...

The last week has witnessed phenomenal political & economic events. Observers, including every pundit under the sun and businesses around the planet, have stood transfixed by a dramatic series of negotiations over a plan that would transform America's economy.

Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary and former Wall Street...

Last week, The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Supreme Court's recent decisions advancing corporate interests. Unfortunately, the politicization of the Roberts Court's jurisprudence extends well beyond cases advancing corporate power, and has polluted several areas of the law. The Court has run amok. Skewed by...

As Senator Barack Obama finally clinched the Democratic nomination for the 2008 presidential election last week, many observers reiterated his groundbreaking role as the first minority nominated to the nation's highest elected office.  But the ebullience in some circles over Obama's primary victory actually downplays...

In 2000, it was the Supreme Court that set the country on the disastrous course it has taken under the Bush-Cheney administration. The Justices' invasion of politics was never more brazen, and rarely has a decision by any American institution ultimately proven so catastrophic. Today, as the nation prepares...

Government handouts to corporations might seem untenable at a time when more and more Americans suffer every day from the impacts of a mounting economic crisis. Yet efforts to bolster the economy have largely taken the form of corporate welfare -- much like an appalling effort, in the closing...