Prompted by Vice President Joe Biden’s recent announcement that he would not be a candidate for president in 2016, I was reminded of an episode from the past, when Biden chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1987. Ronald Reagan was in the White House; Robert Bork had not yet been nominated …

Many books have been written about the abuses of the Obama administration, and many remain to be written, but David Bernstein’s Lawless is just out, and available now on Amazon. It is an excellent summary, and has a terrific foreword by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. I review Lawless in a blog post…

The burgeoning literature on the Obama administration, one of the most lawless in U.S. history, includes Michelle Malkin’s Culture of Corruption (2009), Tom Fitton’s The Corruption Chronicles (2012), Gene Healy’s False Idol (2012), John Fund and Hans von Spakovsky’s Obama’s Enforcer: Er…

The “civil rights revolution” fought in the middle of the 20thcentury was a battle for the hearts and minds of the American public, as well as a political and legal campaign. The new medium of television brought pivotal events into America’s living room—everything from the soaring words o…

This article originally appeared in the Online Library of Law & Liberty and has been updated to reflect recent developments. Candidate Donald Trump’s recent proclamation that he is opposed to so-called “birthright citizenship” for the offspring of illegal aliens born in the United State…

Candidate Donald Trump’s recent proclamation that he is opposed to so-called “birthright citizenship” for the offspring of illegal aliens born in the United States has, like many of his campaign statements, set off hysterical paroxysms of outrage and protest. I do not support Donald Trump f…

Sadly, the American public has become disconnected from its founding document, the Constitution. Knowledge of civics is so deplorable that few people can identify the three branches of government, let alone the constitutional bases for them. Most Americans have never read the Constitution. Even l…

It’s not just a question of “restraint” versus “activism.” What is the proper role of courts in our system of government? Ever since the seminal decision in Marbury v. Madison (1803), the concept of judicial review has made the courts — and in particular the U.S. Supreme Court — the…

Jurors Ignoring the Law Accomplish Nothing but Anarchy in Microcosm What do nineteenth-century anarchist Lysander Spooner,[1] the O. J. legal defense team, some elements of the militia movement,[2] the Los Angeles juries that failed to convict the Menendez brothers of murdering their parents and …

Three views of the future The Supreme Court will go on its merry legislative way. The well-organized campaign against President Reagan’s nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court demonstrated that the constituencies of the left not only are alive and well, but are every bit as in…