War has the power to bring out the best in people. Incredible heroism, courage, self-sacrifice rise miraculously. In quieter times, great issues don’t seem to be at stake. We are used to getting by more easily and making easier choices….
It’s safe to say that Chief Justice John Roberts would rather keep the U.S. Supreme Court out of the legal battles that seem destined to define the 2024 presidential election. Unfortunately for Roberts, it will be all but impossible for…
Scalia: Rise to Greatness, 1936 to 1986 By James Rosen (Regnery Publishing, 500 pages, $40) Antonin “Nino” Scalia’s rise to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court almost seemed predestined. Throughout his educational and professional career, he combined scholarly and…
In 1990, two drug counselors working for a private clinic in Oregon were fired for smoking peyote, which was against the law at the time. However, Alfred Smith and Galen Black were also members of the Native American Church, a…
Joe Biden has called the Texas law prohibiting abortion after six weeks “almost un-American.” Never mind that abortion itself is a blatant violation of America’s founding commitment to protect God-given rights, starting with the most fundamental one, the right to…
Who is Amy Coney Barrett? According to our discussion so far of her SCOTUS nomination, we may need to ask which one. For there seems to be two in our public discourse: the cultural symbol — the “Notorious ACB,” and…
The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, on the occasion of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 10th anniversary on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, referred to the diminutive jurist — who would later join him on the high…
Constitutions deal with the real world, which is never as simple as an attractive idea. But a constitution that is merely complex can’t serve. Who can develop a loyalty to something they cannot even understand? How could such a thing…
June 21, 1989, proved a fateful, ominous portent for First Amendment jurisprudence: the Supreme Court decided Texas v. Johnson. The first bill came due in September 2016, when NFL quarterback you-know-who knelt and bowed his head during the playing of…