The Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission was no jurisprudential masterpiece, but its messy eating marks an important point in First Amendment law, in both religious free exercise and free speech rights. Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion is the first step in unshackling religious free exercise from the hostility
President Trump’s vow to change a “rigged system” helped propel him to victory over stodgy supporters of “liberal” and “conservative” non-alternatives. His Department of Justice has sided with Asian-Americans claiming discrimination in admissions at Harvard and, again on their behalf, expressed interest in the possibility of antitrust violations in early admissions to elite
The Bicentennial of Karl Marx’s birth (May 5, 1818) has come and gone without much fanfare, except in the People’s Republic of China. It’s not that the founder of Communism is forgotten or disrespected in America (a fate that befell him in the former Soviet Union and in North Korea), but that he
The controversy last week over Justice Neil Gorsuch joining a liberal majority in declaring unconstitutional an immigration statute supported by the Trump Administration overshadowed Justice Clarence Thomas’s provocative dissent in the case. “Until today],” wrote Thomas, “this Court has never held that an immigration statute is unconstitutionally vague.” In fact, Gorsuch and Thomas
Is this just a gratifying dream or a frightful, dangerous fancy: to have a government agency that cracks down on the sources of intellectual and spiritual pollution the way the Environmental Protection Agency treats manufacturers that produce toxic pollutants? The dream is reality, at least in part, as evidenced by the recent intervention
Impassioned protests following the mass shooting at a Florida high school culminated over the weekend with marches on Washington, D.C., and other cities. To properly evaluate these spectacles, let's suspend for the moment Aristotle’s recommendation that the youth should not study politics because they are ruled by their passions rather than reason. Their anguished
As Passover and Easter near, the heart and mind turn more intently to questions of the divine. How do we in the grubby business of politics relate to the most transcendent and the most high? A good place to start is Vice President Mike Pence’s tried and true response to questions about who
One of the most revealing moments of Donald Trump’s presidency so far went completely unnoted. “We all learned a lot,” he said following his recent discussion with the nation’s governors, which centered on his well-publicized support for arming qualified public teachers and staff. Speaking of the sheriffs who held back from entering Marjory
In January I was invited to address the City Tavern Club on the occasion of the club’s annual Reagan Dinner. This year it was a particular honor because it was the 30th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s last full year in office. We remember Reagan as an inspirational, optimistic figure who oversaw great
President Trump heeded the urgings of his putative friends and vociferous foes for a uniting speech to Congress. The nags got what they deserved: Trump’s statesmanlike analysis of the stasis, or gridlock, that infects Washington. The most successful partisanship is that which has the patina of nonpartisanship. Americans have always despised parties—understanding them
