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Tag: Karlan’s Court

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
An Interview with Pam Karlan
Pamela S. Karlan, David V. Johnson

“It’s my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat,” Chief Justice John Roberts once said. So why does his court tell litigants what to argue?

Pamela S. Karlan

The Supreme Court may be signaling potential wrongdoers that they can infringe rights with impunity.

Pamela S. Karlan

On New Challenges to the Fourth Amendment.

Pamela S. Karlan

Ineffective trial lawyers, inconclusive evidence, inconsistent testimony, and impenetrable procedural thickets are not unique to capital cases.

Pamela S. Karlan
Anti-immigrant activists argue that the citizenship clause does not mean what it says. They are wrong.
Pamela S. Karlan

Even if the Supreme Court decided that corporations are in every way like persons, there might be limits on the corporate role in politics.

Pamela S. Karlan

In contrast to Loving v. Virginia, on the same-sex marriage issue the Court may have to make a decision before a national consensus emerges.

Pamela S. Karlan
 If Congress had voted to provide every American with health care through a national health service, that new law would be safe from constitutional challenge.
Pamela S. Karlan

The case casts a shadow far beyond the Court’s election-law docket.

Pamela S. Karlan

The question is not whether federal judges should strike down popularly enacted policies, but when.

Pamela S. Karlan

The median lifespan of a national constitution is roughly the life expectancy of a Great Dane. Why has the U.S. Constitution endured?

Pamela S. Karlan

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Boston Review needs your help!

This is a perilous moment for independent media. As a small nonprofit—with no sponsor or endowment—we rely on the generosity of readers to support our work.

Will you please consider making a tax-deductible donation today?

Every contribution helps pay our writers and sustain our website—always free to read for everyone, since you can’t build a more just world behind paywalls.