Help Us Stay Paywall-Free

Democracy depends on the free exchange of ideas. Help sustain it with a tax-deductible donation today.

Pamela S. Karlan

Pamela S. Karlan is Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School and coauthor of Keeping Faith with the Constitution. She writes a bimonthly BR column, Karlan's Court, concerning law, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution.

Articles

Strange bedfellows on the bench are a source and a sign of the Constitution’s flexibility.

Pamela S. Karlan

The framers of the Constitution did not anticipate political parties.

Pamela S. Karlan

In the marriage and voting rights cases, the world outside powerfully affected the court.

Pamela S. Karlan

The Constitution assigns the job of carrying out its vision to all the branches of government, not just to the judiciary.

Pamela S. Karlan

Justice Scalia betrayed originalist interpretation when he defended an individual right to own guns.

Pamela S. Karlan

Today, the vast majority of felony defendants depend on appointed counsel to represent them, and the quality of representation varies wildly.

Pamela S. Karlan
As of 2010, more than 5.85 million American citizens were disenfranchised because of criminal convictions. This is troubling. 
Pamela S. Karlan
When the justices belittle the political branches, they hamper the government’s ability to solve our most pressing problems.
Pamela S. Karlan

When Obama was sworn into office, there were 55 vacancies on the federal bench. There are now more than 75.

Pamela S. Karlan

The Decades-Long Fight Against Political Money.

Pamela S. Karlan

Pam Karlan on the Supreme Court’s Health Care Ruling.

David V. Johnson, Pamela S. Karlan
Custom WordPress Development by Kevinleary.net

Get a free copy of
Poems for Political Disaster!

For National Poetry Month, sign up for our newsletter and get a digital copy of our out-of-print chapbook Poems for Political Disaster—with work by Jorie Graham, Ilya Kaminsky, Solmaz Sharif, Juan Felipe Herrera, and much more.

Newsletter subscribers get our latest essays, reading lists, and exclusive editorial content (plus 10% off our entire store).

Get a free copy of
Poems for Political Disaster!

Poems-for-Political-Disaster-Twitter-1536x864

For National Poetry Month, sign up for our newsletter and get a digital copy of our out-of-print chapbook Poems for Political Disaster.