Constitution

It is time for a serious -- and respectful -- national conversation about the nature of America's political order, and the role -- if any -- that the 225-year-old Constitution might have played in generating or tolerating the system that now exists.

Courts have no legal authority to deprive individual citizens of their fundamental constitutional rights until "the voters" decide to grant those rights on their own. Such an approach is incompatible with the very idea of constitutional freedoms.

The values that have driven the Blue Republicans out of the Democratic party and toward a conservative septuagenarian Republican are a preference for peace over war, a belief in the Bill of Rights and a desire to end a crony corporatist economic and monetary system.

Missouri Senate candidate John Brunner wants to change how things are done in Washington. Namely, he will only meet to talk about issues highlighted i...

If a right gains "fundamental" status, it would, indeed, sweep all across the nation, nullifying every contrary law or court case. But the test poses a high hurdle for anyone seeking to establish a new right.

Republicans in the New York state government are attempting to pass a law that would ban anonymous comments online. Even if they actually passed the act, once it arrived in a federal court it would be tossed out in a "New York minute" (as they say).

Fidelity Investments, the gigantic Wall Street mutual fund company, says it will cost a retired couple $20,000 more to buy their medicines if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Care Act.

The briefs and oral arguments before the Supreme Court regarding the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act would have benefited from close attention to two opinions by Chief Justice John Marshall, which are referred to only in snippets.

Most of the 169 remaining Guantanamo detainees will never be charged in court. They will thus never be given what those accused of the most serious terrorist offenses receive: the opportunity to be tried and sentenced if found guilty.

There is an enormous gap between tea party activists' fervor about the Constitution and what is actually in our Nation's founding charter.

The effects of civic illiteracy take their toll over time, and while Americans are almost defiantly indifferent about their lack of civic understanding, the consequences to our basic rights and freedoms and the general health of our republic could be dire.

The Supreme Court shouldn't buy S.B. 1070 supporters' claims when it hears arguments tomorrow. The Constitution doesn't allow states to set immigration and foreign policy, and it certainly doesn't allow them to do so in a manner that discriminates against people of color.

At its heart, America is an idea, not an ideology. And the idea that all men (and women) are created equal is unique to America. Once we allow law enforcement to ask someone for identification because they look less equal, the idea of America weakens.

If the Supreme Court holds that the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate, which requires every American adult to purchase health insurance or pay a fine, is unconstitutional, why could not Social Security be next?

The fact is that serious wreckage would result from a bad decision. Attempting to unscramble this omelet would be a national nightmare.

Left and Right and Right and Left / Have left America bereft / Of liberty, its founding light. / Christians, Liberals speak of peace / Until they hold the nation's leash, / And send its youth to fight.

The Constitution must be a living document if it is to represent those living today. The flaw in its inception would be its original intent excluded so many people.