From the Left

More Than a Dozen Wrongful Arrests Due to Police Reliance on Facial Recognition Technology

From the Left / ACLU / Apr 20, 2026

When police arrested Kimberlee Williams, a grandmother living in Oklahoma, because of a warrant from Maryland, she was shocked. She had never been to Maryland in her life.

Ms. Williams later learned that Maryland police had relied on an incorrect result from facial recognition technology that falsely flagged her as a suspect. She is the 14th ...Read more

Pope Leo XIV presides over the Prayer Vigil for Peace at St. Peter's Basilica, on April 11, 2026, in Vatican City. (Antonio Masiello/Getty Images/TNS)

Trump, the Pope and the Gospel of 'Pulp Fiction'

From the Left / Clarence Page / Apr 20, 2026

It is hardly surprising that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s explicitly Christian monthly worship services monthly in the Pentagon have raised alarm in some quarters about the separation of church and state.

But who expected to find him quoting lines of alleged scripture that were lifted from Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 cult classic “...Read more

ACLU Leads Fight To Limit Overbroad Digital Search Warrants

From the Left / ACLU / Apr 14, 2026

As a surveillance and cybersecurity counsel for the ACLU, I spearheaded an ACLU project beginning in 2020 to strengthen warrants in the digital age, so that law enforcement does not conduct overbroad searches of our cellphones, computers and other devices. I traveled the country talking to judges and criminal defense lawyers about warrants and...Read more

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth takes questions during a press briefing at the Pentagon on April 8, 2026, in Arlington, Virginia. It was announced that a temporary ceasefire has been reached between the U.S., Iran, and Israel, pausing attacks for about two weeks while Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz and negotiations continue toward a longer-term agreement. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/TNS)

Hegseth’s Holy War Has Become a Disaster

From the Left / Clarence Page / Apr 13, 2026

Watching Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth lead us to war against Iran reminds me, as war stories often do, of a scene in one of my favorite war movies.

I’m talking about the unforgettable Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, brilliantly played by Robert Duvall, in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War classic, “Apocalypse Now.”

The strutting, ...Read more

States Have the Power To Hold Federal Agents Accountable by Allowing People To Sue Them for Rights Violations

From the Left / ACLU / Apr 07, 2026

Over the past year, federal agents have arrested U.S. citizens, dragged children from their beds in the middle of the night, smashed car windows and shot, sometimes fatally, those they encounter. As these agents advance President Donald Trump's extreme deportation agenda, many across the United States have watched in horror as they trample the...Read more

U.S. President Donald Trump rides in his motorcade as he departs the White House for the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 1, 2026. Trump attended in person as the Supreme Court heard a landmark case weighing the constitutionality of his contentious bid to end birthright citizenship, an extraordinary and possibly unprecedented move for the nation's highest office. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

Birthright Citizenship Debate Puts America’s Melting Pot on Trial Again

From the Left / Clarence Page / Apr 06, 2026

As a Black American who is old enough to remember the last days of legal Jim Crow racial segregation, I pay special attention whenever I hear signs that in many American minds the Civil War never really ended.

So does President Trump. That may help to explain why he took the extraordinary step on Wednesday of appearing in person in the grand ...Read more

Welcome to the World of MAGA Machismo, Where Muscles Trump Brains

From the Left / Dick Polman / Nov 16, 2023

Ladies and gentleman, here is your United States Senate, then and now:

Sen. Daniel Webster on March 7, 1850: “It is fortunate that there is a Senate of the United States (with) a just sense of its own dignity, and its own high responsibilities, and a body to which the country looks with confidence for wise, moderate, patriotic, and healing ...Read more

Trump and his lawyers think he can get away with anything. It's outlandish.

From the Left / Ruth Marcus / Oct 25, 2019

WASHINGTON -- "The king can do no wrong." That is the ancient legal maxim used to explain why a sovereign should not be held to account for misdeeds. President Trump and his lawyers are now making arguments that make this legal doctrine look wimpy. Their vision boils down to: The king can do whatever wrong he damn pleases, and there's nothing ...Read more