How Obama Can Prevent Another Debt-Ceiling Crisis
Some Democrats want the president to raise it by himself. But the 14th amendment offers him a much better strategy. More »
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Jack M. Balkin is Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School, and the founder and director of Yale's Information Society Project, an interdisciplinary center that studies law and new information technologies. More
Professor Balkin is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the author of over a hundred articles in different fields including constitutional theory, Internet law, freedom of speech, reproductive rights, legal philosophy, and social theory. He writes political and legal commentary at Balkinization. His books include Living Originalism; Constitutional Redemption; The Constitution in 2020 (with Reva Siegel); The State of Play: Law Games and Virtual Worlds (with Beth Noveck); Cybercrime: Digital Cops in a Networked Environment (with James Grimmelmann et al.); Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology; The Laws of Change: I Ching and the Philosophy of Life; What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said; and What Roe v. Wade Should Have Said.
Some Democrats want the president to raise it by himself. But the 14th amendment offers him a much better strategy. More »
First, he should let the United States go over the fiscal cliff. Then he should push filibuster reform. More »
At best, he would be hamstrung by the conflicting demands of a radicalized party. At worst, he would wreck the Reagan coalition. More »
The fight over health care reform is still going strong: A conservative group now argues that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional because it started in the wrong House of Congress. More »
The 2012 election will decide the real political meaning of the showdown over whether the U.S. would pay its debts. More »
The health-care case wasn't about broccoli or the Commerce Clause. It was about ratifying a change in our nation's social policy. More »
How did a legal argument that most scholars thought was crazy get taken so seriously so quickly? The Republican Party's staunch support played a crucial role. More »
The mandate fits the textbook definition of a tax: it raises revenue, serves the general welfare, does not violate fundamental rights, and it is not a criminal penalty in disguise. More »
Some liberals want the president to go after the Court in the upcoming election. History shows there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. More »
If the Court overturns the Affordable Care Act, it will upset a balance of power that has been in place since the New Deal. More »
