Karlan's Court

Out of Alignment

What We Find in Unusual Alliances on the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court’s Docket Addresses the Washington Gridlock

The framers of the Constitution did not anticipate political parties.

A Moveable Court

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

The Constitution Without the Court

Protecting Americans' Rights Is Not a Job for the Judiciary Alone

Founding Firearms

Originalism and the Second Amendment

Gideon Turns 50

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

Votes Behind Bars

As of 2010, more than 5.85 million American citizens were disenfranchised because of criminal convictions. This is troubling. 

Contempt of Court

When the justices belittle the political branches, they hamper the government’s ability to solve our most pressing problems.

Empty Benches

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

Forty Years After Watergate

The Decades-Long Fight Against Political Money

‘Obamacare’ Is Constitutional, But …

Pam Karlan on the Supreme Court’s Health Care Ruling

A Court of Her Own

An Interview with Pam Karlan

When the Umpire Throws the Pitches

The Court is not simply deciding which cases to hear, but is also directing the parties to address issues the justices want to take up.

What’s a Right Without a Remedy?

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

Big Brother Buys a GPS

On New Challenges to the Fourth Amendment.

The Cost of Death

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

Sometimes an Amendment Is Just an Amendment

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

Me, Inc.

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

It Takes Two

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.

The Health Care Challenge Threatens All Regulation

 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.

Ten Years After Bush v. Gore

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

Acting Out

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

Originalism Spells the Death of the U.S. Constitution

The median lifespan of a national constitution is roughly the life expectancy of a Great Dane. Why has the U.S. Constitution endured? In part because judges have escaped the stranglehold of originalism.

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