It's fitting that during the time of year we celebrate one of our country's most heralded civil rights icons, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., students across the country are standing up as well — for their right to a safe education.

In walkouts nationwide on Friday, students advocated for safety in schools, as the omicron surge brought ...Read more

At the start of this new semester, we face a sobering reality. As law and political science professors, we’re in new territory: instructing our students about the foundations of constitutional law when neither they nor we have faith that the current Supreme Court will respect precedent and approach the law as the institution once had.

It is ...Read more

Living their faith, worshippers at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, invited an unknown, unkempt (by his own admission he "didn't look nice") man into their synagogue after he asked if it was a night shelter. They gave him comfort — and a cup of tea.

But Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old from Great Britain, did not return the ...Read more

Every January, as I read and listen to the tributes to Martin Luther King Jr., I think not only about what Dr. King gave the world, but also about what he gave me personally.

On his 1963 visit to Cleveland, Dr. King spoke from the back of a flatbed truck at a park not far from our neighborhood. My mother, who'd grown up in Alabama during the ...Read more

Recent research lays bare an enormous toll facing California families: Child care has become so costly that in most of the state it’s surpassed housing as the largest monthly expense for households with young children.

Child care costs have jumped 45% in Los Angeles County and an astonishing 81% in San Francisco since 2014 for households with...Read more

Now that Devin Nunes has slunk off to the Trump-a-verse, is there anyone in Washington who is as transparently cynical, cowardly and dishonest as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the Republican shape-shifter from Central California?

Here is a man who blamed then-President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection … before ...Read more

When the nation's second-largest school district reopens for business despite tens of thousands of positive coronavirus tests among students and staff, things have changed.

When the state of California, which led the nation in caution, tells medical staffers who tested positive to go back to work if they're asymptomatic, things have changed.

...Read more

Although the United Kingdom left the European Union over two years ago, there are still considerable disagreements concerning the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol. This agreement keeps Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods to protect the highly integrated all-island economy and safeguard the Good Friday Agreement,...Read more

Three lengthy, popular, highly regarded documentaries have come out in recent years that have as a goal nothing less than changing how we think about the past.

“O.J.: Made in America” — the five-part, seven-hour and 47-minute documentary released by ESPN in 2016 — is a staggering journalistic achievement with a 100% positive ranking on ...Read more

Florida’s 2022 legislative session has been defined by emotionally charged cultural issues that Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing ahead of his reelection bid and rumored presidential aspirations: banning critical race theory, removing “unauthorized aliens” from the state and election fraud.

But these made-up crises have little — if any — ...Read more

For the second year in a row, California has been blessed with a massive budget surplus, and Gov. Gavin Newsom is again seeking to spend billions of those dollars responding to climate change.

The $22 billion Newsom proposed recently is the largest investment in climate change in state history. Combined with funds from last year’s state ...Read more

The COVID-19 crisis, and the associated pivot to virtual hearings and livestreams, has exposed plenty of flaws in the judicial system and its practitioners. We’ve seen a lawyer who could not get rid of a cat filter, defendants appearing semi-naked, attorneys smoking cigars and all kinds of shenanigans with the mute button.

Add in a variety of...Read more

My purpose here is not to carp — much — about being mistreated by Lufthansa's customer service system. Why bother? My recent experience with the German airline was no worse than what I or anyone else is usually subjected to by big companies.

Yes, I had to call repeatedly just to get put on hold. When I finally made it to hold, I waited ...Read more

The road to Stephen Sondheim is paved with Disney musicals.

Seven years ago I bought Broadway tickets for “Aladdin” in New York to take my first grandchild to their first musical. Lukas was 3, almost 4. The child was attentive for maybe 15 minutes before declaring in a loud voice that Jafar was a bad guy and it was time to leave.

In ...Read more

President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats have a special gift in mind for what would have been the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 93rd birthday: declaring hyperpartisanship an insurmountable reality and capitulating accordingly.

Specifically, in order to advance voting rights legislation, Democrats are on the brink of eliminating the Senate ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Give Gov. Gavin Newsom credit: Whatever you might think of him on other matters, he got it completely right on Sirhan Sirhan.

No. 1, Sirhan committed an unpardonable crime against America that changed our history for the worse.

No. 2, although some conspiracy theorists question Sirhan’s guilt, the evidence is ...Read more

Amid the spread of the most contagious coronavirus variant yet, major decisions by conservative politicians and judges at the federal and state levels are making it virtually impossible for public health authorities to contain the virus and keep the public safe. This ideological zealotry will cost lives.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ...Read more

A second civil war seems far-fetched. But do we ignore the possibility at our peril? Or do we turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy by talking about it too much?

And we are talking about it a lot. Last week The New York Times published at least four opinion pieces contemplating the prospects of civil war in our increasingly factionalized — ...Read more

After months of wrangling, the U.S. Senate plans to vote this week on an ambitious Democratic bill on voting rights.

The bill is already doomed. Senate rules require 60 votes to move most bills to final passage; this one has only 50 — all Democrats, opposed by all 50 Republicans.

The debate will provide plenty of angry rhetoric and finger-...Read more

Here in New York, when a remorseless cop killer or other notorious murderer has been sprung from prison by a clueless parole board, we’ve wished that there was some check on its powers. But our state doesn’t have such a review. Thankfully, California does, and thankfully Gov. Gavin Newsom has reversed the dunderheaded decision by his parole ...Read more