Hate-Crime Laws Don’t Work as Their Supporters Intended
Prosecutors aren’t charging suspects with hate crimes, even in clear-cut cases.
The Next Major Challenge to the Affordable Care Act
The law’s opponents have a good chance of winning their next showdown, though it won’t threaten the law as a whole.
America’s ‘Great Chief Justice’ Was an Unrepentant Slaveholder
John Marshall not only owned people; he owned many of them, and aggressively bought them when he could.
The Question of Who Counts
When courts consider the prospect of excluding noncitizens from representation, they should bear in mind the country’s past.
Originalism, Divided
The theory has not provided the clarity some of its early proponents had hoped it would.
The Abortion Fight Has Never Been About Just Roe v. Wade
Anti-abortion-rights activists have turned their arguments away from protecting democracy and toward maximizing protection for fetal life.
The Country Is On the Cusp of a New Era
America is inching closer to a possibility it has never seen before: the indictment and trial of a former president.
How to Actually Prosecute the Financial Crimes of the Very Rich
I quit the DOJ because I no longer wanted to participate in a system this permissive.
The War on Trans Kids Is Totally Unconstitutional
States do not have a defensible reason for denying children recommended medical care.
/media/img/mt/2021/04/969EC411_91C9_41C0_88C2_878A6E7ADBC9/original.png)
The Man Who Should Be Merrick Garland’s Role Model
The new attorney general has inherited a department plagued by scandal, just as Edward Levi did in 1975.
Ban Him Forever
To send the right message, Donald Trump’s removal from Facebook must be permanent.
Don’t Fall for the D.C. Retrocession ‘Okey-Doke’
Retrocession is being used to derail what Washingtonians actually want: statehood.
/media/img/mt/2021/04/AB674F58_DA8E_42BF_9F88_7FCD467AA793/original.png)
The Year That Changed Everything
Criticizing the Founders is in vogue these days, but what they did was extraordinary.
The Chauvin Trial’s Jury Wasn’t Like Other Juries
Its guilty verdict resulted not just from the strength of the evidence, but from a jury-selection process that departed from American norms.
The Two Memos With Enormous Constitutional Consequences
What’s astonishing is that presidential criminal immunity has no grounding in actual law. It’s not in the Constitution or any federal statute, regulation, or judicial decision. It is not law at all.
/media/img/mt/2021/04/8E1FA123_3B55_4616_AA8D_97FCEC7907A6/original.png)
How to Stop the Minority-Rule Doom Loop
The next two years might be America’s last chance to protect the basic democratic principle of majority rule.
/media/img/mt/2021/04/CBFAADD0_0ADA_4DC1_9831_97C5354A4222/original.png)
Trump’s Power Won’t Peak for Another 20 Years
By the early 2040s, Trump-appointed chief judges will simultaneously sit atop nearly every appeals court in the country.
The Simple Principle That Can Fix American Law
What if a coherent legal philosophy could exist between the poles of living constitutionalism and originalism?
Party Primaries Must Go
Partisan primaries motivate legislators to keep in lockstep with a narrow and extreme slice of the electorate rather than govern in the public interest.
/media/img/mt/2021/03/Atlantic_mob_v1/original.png)
The Whole Point Was to Avoid Mob Violence
The Founders would have been appalled by the attack on the Capitol but not surprised.
/media/img/mt/2021/02/Artboard_1_1/original.png)
Defend the Public Defenders
Their ability to hold on to their job should not depend on the same people they challenge in court.
The Supreme Court Needs to Show Its Work
For an institution whose legitimacy depends largely on the public’s perception of its integrity, the growth of unseen, unsigned, and unexplained decisions can only be a bad thing.
Guns Are a Threat to the Body Politic
America must regulate guns not only to protect life, but to protect its citizens’ equal freedoms to speak, assemble, worship, and vote without fear.
The Supreme Court Might Kill Voting Rights—Quietly
Conservative justices seem poised to use complex, technical doctrines that will likely sanction all manner of state voter-suppression measures.
The Supreme Court Is Giving Lower Courts a Subtle Hint to Rein In Police Misconduct
And those paying attention haven’t missed it.
/media/img/mt/2021/02/Atlantic_T_const_5_v1/original.png)
The 5 Trump Amendments to the Constitution
The 45th president profoundly altered our system of government.
/media/img/mt/2021/02/Atlantic_const_jan6_1/original.png)
January 6 Was Just One Day in a Sustained Campaign
The impeachment trial offers a chance to show how Donald Trump tried to undermine the election’s legitimacy for months—not just on the day of the Capitol attack.
Freedom of Speech Doesn’t Mean What Trump’s Lawyers Want It to Mean
The First Amendment does not limit the removal and disqualification powers conferred on Congress by the Constitution.
How One Supreme Court Decision Increased Discrimination Against LGBTQ Couples
People may like to believe that the Court can accommodate conservative religious groups without causing much harm, but that does not seem to be the case.
Lots of People Are Disqualified From Becoming President
Prohibiting Trump from running again is no outlandish measure, but an expressly constitutional remedy.
To Try a President
Should Richard Nixon have faced criminal prosecution? A never-before-published article from 1974, written by a leading legal scholar, offers answers that speak to the present.
Employers’ Vaccine Mandates Are Representative of America’s Failed Approach to Public Health
We can’t rely on the private sector to protect the common good.
/media/img/mt/2021/01/7CN23I00/original.png)
The Great Free-Speech Reversal
Liberals once believed that private corporations have far too much power over the flow of ideas and information in today’s society. Now it’s conservatives who are worried.
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.
/media/img/mt/2021/01/0121_Becca_Katie_Remember/original.png)
Don’t Move On Just Yet
Could a truth and reconciliation commission help the country heal?
America Desperately Needs a New Age of Moral Leadership
Following Trump’s intensely polarizing presidency, Biden’s message of decency, truth, constitutional integrity, and care for one another is more imperative than ever.
/media/img/mt/2021/01/0121_Becca_Katie_DemagogueCycle/original.png)
How to Break the Demagogue Cycle
The Senate must convict Trump in order to disqualify him from ever holding public office again.
/media/img/mt/2021/01/Atlantic_const_disinfo_v1/original.png)
The Other Tragedy of January 6
One hundred and forty-seven Republican members of Congress voted to sustain a delusion in the American mind.
/media/img/mt/2021/01/Atlantic_const_state_pros_v1/original.png)
Don’t Be Scared of Prosecuting Trump
Republicans are arguing that going after him will do irreversible damage to American democracy. Don’t believe them.
The Gun-Rights Movement Fed America’s Insurrectionist Fever Dreams
The NRA and its allies have argued for years that citizens need to arm themselves for a fight against tyranny.
/media/img/mt/2021/01/Atlantic_const_25_v1/original.png)
The Entire Point of the 25th Amendment
There can be no confusion over who is president, even for a moment.
America Is Nearing the End of Law
Trump’s allies are not making good-faith arguments within America’s legal system. Rather, this is a challenge to the legal system.
We Can’t Let Our Elections Be This Vulnerable Again
No law can stop reckless people from trying to thwart the popular will, but we should still address the obvious weak spots in our system.
How Raphael Warnock Came to Be an Abortion-Rights Outlier
Religious, pro-abortion-rights voices were not always so rare.
Trump’s Pardon of Manafort Is the Realization of the Founders’ Fears
George Mason anticipated the president’s act more than 230 years ago.
Trump’s Pardons Make the Unimaginable Real
He may now attempt what no one thought a president would ever try.
Liberals Were Right to Fear the Supreme Court’s Election Intervention
The justices’ decision not to wade into a sloppy coup attempt is no victory for rule of law.
/media/img/mt/2020/12/Atlantic_const_clinesmith_v1/original.png)
The Trump Administration’s Double Standard of Justice
A federal judge will decide next month whether the U.S. legal system treats presidential allies differently from presidential antagonists.
What If We Wrote the Constitution Today?
Proposals from libertarian, conservative, and progressive scholars displayed a few striking differences—but also some profound similarities.
/media/img/mt/2020/12/Atlantic_Const_jud_pride_v1/original.png)
Thank Goodness for the Independence of America’s Judiciary
The courts have refused to be made pawns in President Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.
Trump’s Election Litigation Will Have Lasting Effects
These lawsuits have upended courts’ role in interpreting voting laws.
Minority Rule Cannot Last in America
It never has.
There Aren’t Serious-Enough Consequences for Those Trying to Break American Democracy
What the president and his lawyers have been attempting to do deserves punishment that will likely never come.
/media/img/mt/2020/10/Atlantic_const_biden_ab_v2/original.png)
Biden Could Expand Abortion Access, Even Without the Senate
The path lies not in legislation but through the deregulation of mifepristone—the only drug the FDA has approved to safely and effectively terminate an early pregnancy.
The Flynn Pardon Is a Despicable Use of an Awesome Power
The president’s abuse of his clemency power is an assault on one of the few truly humane aspects of the American legal system.
/media/img/mt/2020/11/Atlantic_Trump_lost_v1/original.png)
Republicans With Any Love of Country Must Acknowledge That Trump Has Lost
Each day, it becomes more urgent that Republicans and conservatives speak in defense of institutions and in defiance of the president’s posture.
/media/img/mt/2020/11/Atlantic_gov_block_v1/original.png)
Congress Needs to End This, Now
The legislative branch is constitutionally charged with checking abuses in the executive branch—and it must act to ensure a smooth transition.
No Self-Respecting Lawyer Should Touch Trump’s Election-Fraud Claims
The president may not have to worry about keeping a job after January 20, 2021, but the attorneys doing his bidding at the moment certainly do.
/media/img/mt/2020/11/Atlantic_Trump_hail_mary_v1/original.png)
Trump Needs Three Consecutive Hail Mary Passes
The president’s litigation strategy is unlikely to succeed, but it’s doing great harm in the meantime.
The Fallout of a SCOTUS Health-Care Decision Could Be Quick, Devastating, and Irreversible
Millions of Americans could lose their insurance—and neither Joe Biden nor the states will be in a good position to do much about it.