U.S.

Rethinking the War on Terror

President Obama’s speech on counterterrorism strategy fell short on substance.

  • Elizabeth Goitein
  • Faiza Patel

Founding Firearms

Originalism and the Second Amendment

  • Pamela S. Karlan

Martial Flaw

Why Tsarnaev is not an enemy combatant.

  • Elizabeth Goitein

Fix It Fair

Repair Our Crumbling Infrastructure the Right Way

  • Amy B. Dean

Countee Cullen and the Racial Mountain

The life of the black poet.

  • Major Jackson

Weak Convictions

Prosecutors Are Freeing the Prisoners They Put Behind Bars

  • Beth Schwartzapfel

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The Other Side of the Wall

Immigration Reform from the Migrant’s Perspective

  • Adam Goodman

How Not to Put Students First

Michelle Rhee’s fixation on teachers misses other sources of educational inequality.

  • Robin West

Who Shot Valerie Finley?

Why One Man’s Innocence Is So Hard To Prove

  • Beth Schwartzapfel

Hard Money Man

Paul Volcker’s career of public service reads as a history of the last half-century of American money.

  • Jonathan Kirshner

Who Are You Calling Poor?

Managing Editor Simon Waxman interviews Jina Moore about how she reports and writes about poverty.

  • Simon Waxman
  • Jina Moore

Strapped

My eight years with a gun.

  • Hal Stucker

Unfinished Revolution

Dr. King’s goal was full employment and universal health care.

  • J. Phillip Thompson

The Filibuster Myth

Debate about the Senate filibuster is a distracting, artificial controversy.

  • Charles Fried
  • Frederick A.O. Schwarz, Jr.

The Turnout Mystery

The decline in turnout from 2008 to 2012 is a puzzle.

  • Stephen Ansolabehere

Votes Behind Bars

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

  • Pamela S. Karlan

The Road (and Rail) to Justice

Pushing for Fair Public Transit

  • Amy B. Dean

Pomp and Exceptional Circumstance

How Students Are Forced to Prop Up the Education Bubble

  • Malcolm Harris

Promoting Social Mobility

The accident of birth is a principal source of inequality in America today.

  • James J. Heckman
with responses from
  • Mike Rose
  • Robin West
  • Charles Murray
  • Carol S. Dweck
  • David Deming
  • Neal McCluskey
  • Annette Lareau
  • Lelac Almagor
  • Adam Swift & Harry Brighouse
  • Geoffrey Canada

Making Elections Fairer

An Interview with Archon Fung

  • David V. Johnson

Fighting over the Same Ground

An Interview with Rajiv Chandrasekaran

  • David V. Johnson

Before Greed

Americans Didn’t Always Yearn for Riches

  • Richard White

Beyond the Welfare State

Rawls’s radical vision for a better America.

  • Martin O’Neill
  • Thad Williamson

Empty Benches

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

  • Pamela S. Karlan
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