The same reasoning that leads Justice Scalia to conclude that the Framers' ignorance of cell phones and the Internet doesn't resolve questions about "the freedom of speech" should also lead him to the Framers' ignorance about the nature of sexual orientation. If one is going to be an "originalist," at least one should be consistent about it.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) on Tuesday signed what is being called the nation's most pro-Second Amendment law, but one that could face constitutiona...

At least three states are seeking to force a constitutional convention to consider changes to the founding document. Indiana, Georgia and Kansas h...

Roe v. Wade was a triumph of American constitutional law. It changed the world in a fundamental way. Those who wish that Roe had never been decided would return us to a world of gender oppression, back-alley abortions and personal degredation.

For all that some conservative members of the Supreme Court talk about "original intent" in the words of the Constitution, remarkably little attention is paid to the intent of those who refounded this nation in the wake of the Civil War. 

As I wrap up the judiciary portion of my extended rant about the imperfections in our system, I thought I would list a few of the ideas that have either been suggested or even demonstrated around the world.

Right to Life should mean access to health care. The right-wing supports birth, but not health care for all as right of citizenship. Priority number one of a Romney administration is to repeal Obamacare.

All hail the Sixteenth Amendment and the progressive movement that led to its passage, which in turn made Obamacare's victory at the Supreme Court possible.

In 63 B.C., Julius Caesar delivered a speech to the Roman Senate in which he conveyed a crucial point, one highly relevant to many of our current cont...

Only small segments of the public pay substantial, sustained attention even to high-profile cases like this one, never mind the particulars of the full reach of the interstate commerce clause, or whether requiring health insurance is akin to mandating consumption of broccoli.

A Court decision to overturn the individual mandate would be inconsistent with precedent dating all the way back to 1824, and would represent an effort by the Justices to inject themselves into the political and policy debates surrounding our health care problems.

The Supreme Court argument over the constitutionality of the Obama health care law has been more like a legislative argument between liberal and conservatives than a constitutional one.

If ever there was a get-out-of-town case, this one is it: Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida, the case that challenges the constituti...

The conservative constitutional narrative is deeply unprincipled and patently wrong, both in its defense of conservative judicial ideology and in its attack on what conservatives deride as a result-oriented "liberal" jurisprudence.

To those locked in the power struggles between right and left, adverse court decisions are frequently lambasted as "judicial activism." When the Supre...

In an effort to update and upgrade our national anthem, Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten has penned his own replacement, with music set to th...

Like a failure to shovel after a winter storm, a failure to pay for my own health insurance is simply a way to shift risk onto my neighbors to avoid personal responsibility.

Congress can't criminalize things arbitrarily, and it certainly can't turn people into felons on the basis of a simple factual mistake, like treating bone marrow as if it were a solid organ.

Monday's federal court decision striking down the landmark Affordable Care Act shows how much the political right has embraced judicial activism.