Benjamin Wittes
A specialist in law and national security, he is the author of several books. Most recently, he co-wrote Unmaking the Presidency: Donald Trump’s War on the World’s Most Powerful Office. He previously served as a member of The Washington Post’s editorial-page staff, where he focused on legal affairs.
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Leah Millis / Reuters The Confirmation Wars Are Over
Partisanship won out—and the contagion is spreading.
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Leah Millis / Reuters The Flaw in Trump's Obstruction-of-Justice Defense
The president isn’t above the law, whatever his lawyers may claim—but prosecutors will face an unusually high burden to prove any misconduct.
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Kevin Lamarque / Reuters Donald Trump Has All the Power
The president’s alarming Sunday tweet could genuinely produce a crisis between the White House, on the one hand, and the Justice Department and the FBI, on the other.
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Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP Bad News for President Trump
The Comey memos are more revealing than they seem.
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Andrew Harnik / AP The Principle of Professional Law Enforcement Is Now on the Line
If the president can, with impunity, remove the deputy attorney general, the very notion that law enforcement has a higher function than serving power becomes a lie.
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Jonathan Ernst / Reuters Is America on the Verge of a Constitutional Crisis?
As the Trump presidency approaches a troubling tipping point, it’s time to find the right term for what’s happening to democracy.
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Edmon de Haro Boycott the Republican Party
If conservatives want to save the GOP from itself, they need to vote mindlessly and mechanically against its nominees.
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How Obama Decides Your Fate If He Thinks You're a Terrorist
A look inside the "disposition matrix" that determines when -- or if -- the administration will pursue a suspected militant
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Of Clerks and Perks
Why Supreme Court justices have more free time than ever—and why it should be taken away
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MARITAL DIFFERENCES
The national divide over gay marriage is a recipe for legal confusion—but we should learn to live with it
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Marital Differences
The national divide over gay marriage is a recipe for legal confusion—but we should learn to live with it
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Justice Delayed
Why we still don’t have a way to put terrorists on trial
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Whose Court Is It Really?
John Roberts is the new chief justice, but the Supreme Court isn't his to lead just yet
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The Executioner's Swan Song?
The death penalty is not about to vanish overnight—but the Supreme Court's tolerance for it is diminishing rapidly
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Without Precedent
Actually, the Supreme Court's problem is not merely disconnection from the real world—it's also arrogance, dishonesty, grandiosity, and a lack of respect for principle, history, or logic
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The Hapless Toad
Amid all the liberal hysteria about the threats posed by a conservative Supreme Court, one threat tends to be ignored—and it happens to be the biggest one
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Confirmation Class
Most of what we learn from confirmation hearings for a Supreme Court chief justice will be misleading or irrelevant
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Dana Verkouteren / AP Letting Go of Roe
The Democratic Party's commitment to preserving Roe v. Wade has been deeply unhealthy for abortion rights, for liberalism more generally, and ultimately for American democracy
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Leaks and the Law
What happens when the journalistic principle of protecting confidential sources clashes with the public interest in prosecuting a crime? A cross-examination
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Supreme Irony
As elections near, partisans always invoke a threat to the "balance" of the Court. But the real peril isn't ideology—it's blandness
