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May-Ying Lam The Senate Trial Will Test Whether Republicans Care Even About Themselves
The whole American government is premised on the idea that politicians will act in their own interests. A Senate that won’t protect itself from attack can’t protect the country.
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Getty / The Atlantic The Amy Coney Barrett Hearings Were a Failure
The multiday spectacle gave viewers little understanding of the most important issue the Court will rule on: how Americans vote and whether those votes matter.
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The Atlantic Senate Republicans Are Playing a Dangerous Game With the Court’s Legitimacy
The concept of precedent isn’t valuable just for the guidance it provides but also for the confidence it instills in political and legal systems. Republicans are treating it recklessly.
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Shutterstock / The Atlantic Trump’s Words Are Not Meaningless Ramblings
Never mind what the courts say tomorrow. The president speaks the law as it is understood and applied today.
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Hulton / Getty / The Atlantic The Justice Department Has Had to Twist Itself in Knots to Defend Trump on Emoluments
For decades, the department has interpreted the Constitution to err on the side of country first. Now all that has changed.
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oleskalashnik / Shutterstock / The Atlantic Trump’s Backwards Federalism Could Actually Work
Even if the president can’t mandate the states to reopen their economies, he can still do plenty to force that outcome.
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Stocksnapper / Katie Martin / The Atlantic How to Actually Use the Defense Production Act
There is no magic in the DPA’s mere invocation. The question is what that invocation makes possible and whether it serves the country’s complex supply needs.
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Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Donald Trump’s Strange and Dangerous ‘Absolute Rights’ Idea
This is a profound misunderstanding of the American constitutional system.
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Amanda Voisard / Reuters Impeachment Will Never Be the Same Again
No longer will presidents live with the possibility of being removed from office. But that’s not to say Congress is powerless.
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Paul Spella / The Atlantic Stop the Impeachment-Polling Madness
A decision to remove the president from office should not turn on public opinion.
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AP Photo This Is Not the Senate the Framers Imagined
The Constitution originally provided for the selection of senators by state legislatures, but the Seventeenth Amendment changed that, and with it, the Senate itself.
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Brooks Kraft LLC / Corbis via Getty John Roberts’s Surprisingly Straightforward Task Ahead
The chief justice’s role in the impeachment trial is a limited one, and he should be able to manage it easily without putting his or the Court’s legitimacy at risk.
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Library of Congress / AP The President Can Do Whatever He Wants, Which Is Why He Can’t
The Founders gave the executive branch immense authority—but also counted on the people to hold their leaders in check.
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J. Scott Applewhite / AP There’s Never Going to Be a Clear Standard for Impeachable Offenses
And that means it’s Congress’s job to set boundaries around presidential power.
