Author: nick

[ad_1] The left keeps claiming that its candidates purport to speak for working-class people and advance working-class interests, only to discover that supporters of democratic socialism are disproportionately affluent and elite-educated. It’s true in New York City—where two democratic socialists just won their primaries—and it’s also true in Maine, where Democratic nominee Graham Platner hopes to defeat incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Platner’s campaign rhetoric often includes dramatic statements about how working people in Maine are falling in love with his extremely progressive economic policies and agree with his tactic of incessantly demonizing the wealthy. “We have watched this state…

[ad_1] Rep. Anna Luna (R. Florida) kicks off the MKUltra hearing. Image courtesy House.gov. As a scholar who spent decades using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and archives studying Cold War CIA operations, it was with great interest that I watched yesterday’s US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearings on “Mind Control and Accountability: Uncovering the Truth of the CIA’s MKULTRA Project.” Because my academic research focuses on the CIA’s use of funding fronts and various specific CIA operations, including its MKUltra program, I was surprised to learn of congressional interest in a program that was terminated over…

[ad_1] On June 30, the Supreme Court granted cert in two cases involving prohibitions on semiautomatic rifles.  In Viramontes v. Cook County, arising out of the 7th Circuit, the petition posed the issue as: “Whether the Second and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee the right to possess AR-15 platform and similar semiautomatic rifles.”  That was consolidated with Grant v. Rovella, which concerns Connecticut’s ban upheld by the 2nd Circuit.  The statement of the question in Viramontes will apply to both cases. The Viramontes petition begins with the following statement: Last term, this Court denied certiorari in Snope v. Brown, a case raising…

[ad_1] Nina Totenberg, to her credit, took all the blame for the Alito retirement story. She also offered a sincere apology, which I respect. Still, her error is inexplicable. Here is how the NPR Public Editor described the incident: Totenberg was reporting on the final day of the Supreme Court session on Tuesday. As she was leaving the court, Chief Justice John Roberts was announcing upcoming retirements. Totenberg wondered why everyone else wasn’t leaving and asked someone outside the court. According to her interview that same day on All Things Considered, Totenberg asked a bystander what was going on, and the person…

[ad_1] General Motors headquarters, Detroit. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair. Earlier this month, Hawaii became the first state in the country to pass legislation aiming to get corporate money out of elections by using the law of business organizations. The groups supporting this innovative approach see it as part of a broader Corporate Power Reset movement. They want to stop artificial entities created by the law “from spending money or contributing anything of value to influence candidate elections or ballot measures.” They say that corporate charters, which are a state-granted special privilege, should not contemplate a right to interfere in electoral…

[ad_1] Shortly after the 2024 election, John Cornyn nearly became the Senate majority leader. Today, he’s at war with his own party after suffering an embarrassing primary defeat. He wants to fight for his own particular brand of Republicanism and defy President Trump’s agenda. But Cornyn is fighting a losing battle. His downfall illustrates the transformation of the American Right over the past decade, a development I cover in my new book, Whitepill. Cornyn no longer has a home in Trump’s party. Conservatism has changed dramatically over the last decade, leaving little room for Cornyn to advance his Business First…

[ad_1] Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled that “an agreement not to appeal a sentence is unenforceable when it would result in a miscarriage of justice.” This week, the Court held that a government-ordered analysis of cellphone location data qualifies as a “search” under the Fourth Amendment. In both cases, Justice Neil Gorsuch agreed with the result but wrote separately to highlight deeper issues that the majority did not address: the Supreme Court’s endorsement of coercive plea bargaining and its embrace of two dubious Fourth Amendment doctrines. Gorsuch’s opinions, which criticize precedents that have undermined civil liberties, illustrate his…

[ad_1] The Fifth Edition of the Barnett/Blackman casebook will be published circa December 2026 for adoption in the Spring 2027 semester. We worked out an arrangement with our publisher to finalize several chapters immediately after the term ends. First, we are incorporating Hemani and Wolford into the Second Amendment chapter. We already shortened Heller, and the excerpt from Bruen will likely shrink. It is regrettable the Court will not decide the AR-15 case until our book is in print. The chapter on sex discrimination was waiting for B.P.J. v. West Virginia. That case follows neatly from Skrmetti and Mahmoud. Indeed, Frontiero and Craig v. Boren seem quaint…

[ad_1] Andy Burnham, the presumptive prime minister, hasn’t even measured the curtains in Number Ten yet and already he is promising to relocate it. His first Big Speech on the economy Monday in, where else, Manchester, promised to set up a “Number Ten North” in, where else, Manchester. This will be the driving force, he says, of a new devolved UK of the regions. “The nerve centre of a new, rewired Britain.” Burnham refused to take questions after his speech so journalists were unable to ask exactly what this all meant. The former mayor of Greater Manchester’s speech was a…

[ad_1] Wickedness and folly seem to be carrying the day, as usual; you’d expect nothing less heading into the weekend’s orgy of democracy. True to type, the Trump administration continues to misunderstand central elements of the negotiations to end the war with Iran; meanwhile, the Iranians, whose analysis and execution have been more robust than the standard set in recent years, also look as if they have set their hearts on squandering their strong cards, a classic maneuver in the Islamic Republic’s tradition of foreign policy. On the American side, negotiators continue to evince little understanding of the Lebanon file…