It seems unlikely that the Supreme Court will embrace Donald Trump’s outrageous claim that as a former president he enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions that he allegedly took to overturn the 2020 election and cling to power. This is a relief. To do otherwise would allow the office to become, as Justice Ketanji Brown ...Read more

For those rightly concerned about the timing of Donald Trump’s federal Jan. 6 trial, Thursday’s oral arguments before the Supreme Court gave plenty of reasons for worry. Moreover, the court’s conservative majority seemed inclined to define presidential immunity from prosecution in a way that could undermine some of the charges in special ...Read more

On Wednesday, a divided Supreme Court listened to arguments over a state’s abortion ban – its first such hearing since the justices overturned Roe v. Wade. The case, in which the Joe Biden administration is challenging Idaho’s abortion ban, literally puts the health and even the lives of pregnant women on the line.

The Biden ...Read more

The American electorate is facing the most serious threat to our democracy since the Civil War. Many believe that if Donald Trump is elected president again, we face a real possibility that he will erode our democratic institutions past the breaking point to retain power. Others believe that whether Trump or Joe Biden resides in the White House ...Read more

It is embarrassing to have to type this sentence, but type it we will: If and when there are no shelter beds available, it is unacceptable for a city or town to make it a crime for individuals to fall asleep outdoors. Though Grants Pass, Oregon, insists it is only prohibiting behavior, not the people themselves, that’s a distinction without a ...Read more

My mom stood next to my grandfather, both of them crying as he emptied the bulk tank and dumped his milk in protest.

It was the 1960s, and dairy farmers in Wisconsin and elsewhere who were members of the National Farmers Organization were destroying their milk to cause shortages in supply chains and improve prices. They were desperate, ...Read more

No one could have predicted that the worst Congress in memory would morph into the Kumbaya Congress. Or that Mike Johnson, the accidental House speaker from Louisiana, would transform from Trump puppet to statesman.

The two developments are related, of course. Congress was able to veer from the dangerous, dead-end course that the Republican-run...Read more

In recent days, the inflation indicators have stubbornly signaled that a high tide of prices is still soaking us consumers. Growing at a 3.5% annual rate in March, the Consumer Price Index has now exceeded expectations for three months hand-running. Once again, investors and financial decisionmakers—and isn’t that everyone with a bank ...Read more

It’s absurd that in the 21st century, the Supreme Court is debating how close to death pregnant women need to be before doctors can perform a medically necessary abortion.

But that’s where we are nearly two years after this same court in the Dobbs decision overturned the constitutional right to an abortion — and launched a profusion of ...Read more

It’s easy to understand why the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is so upset about the Federal Trade Commission’s decision to ban noncompete agreements. The problem for businesses is not that they will lose trade secrets or valuable investments in workers to competitors. It’s that they just lost bargaining power to workers — and that’s exactly...Read more

California may be a leader in the fight against climate change, but the state is years, even decades, behind other states when it comes to granting environmental rights to its citizens.

While a handful of other state constitutions, including those of New York and Pennsylvania, declare the people’s rights to clean air, water and a healthy ...Read more

In a narrow vote this week, the Federal Trade Commission approved a rule that will ban the vast majority of noncompete clauses by U.S. employers, which have long prevented workers from switching jobs or setting out on their own.

In doing so, the agency did its duty to protect American economic dynamism and opportunity. We hope that’s the ...Read more

Dozens of people across California have been wrongly convicted of crimes largely because of law enforcement officers’ flawed handling of eyewitness evidence. Courts have found instances of eyewitnesses feeling pressured to make an identification from a lineup even when the true culprit wasn’t present; making shaky identifications that were ...Read more

Secretary of State Antony Blinken hates the question in all forms. “Do Jewish lives matter more than Palestinian and Muslim lives?,” he was recently asked on a global stage. “No, period,” he replied, visibly startled. That evidently satisfied nobody. “Do we have a double standard? The answer is no,” he had to answer yet again this ...Read more

On Monday afternoon, New York’s Columbia University looked like a military installation, not one of the most storied institutions of learning in the United States.

The campus gates, festooned with balloons designed to “welcome” newly admitted students, all were padlocked shut. Columbia’s main, beaux-arts campus occupies more than six ...Read more

If I were a mystery novelist instead of an economist, I’d call it “The Case of the Missing Workers.”

I’m referring to the fact that there are 2.3 million fewer people employed today than if the employment-to-population ratio had stayed the same as it was four years ago, just before the COVID-19 pandemic. This lack of workers is hurting ...Read more

The longest-running melodrama in sports is less about events on the field of play than on machinations in the ownership suite of baseball's Oakland A's, who are close to finalizing a move to Las Vegas three or four years from now.

At least, that's the hope of Major League Baseball and the team's billionaire owner, John Fisher. That the deal ...Read more

It won’t be easy to find another Florida governor who inflicted so much cruelty on its people as quickly as Ron DeSantis did with a single signature.

One of the worst single actions by the 2024 Legislature, House Bill 433, prohibits all local governments from taking any steps to protect outdoor workers from heat or from requiring their ...Read more

Monday, with all classes being held remote, the environs of Columbia University were anything but quiet. On the South Lawn in front of Butler Library was the tent city of students with the misguided idea to boycott Israel. These students were visited by leftwing councilmembers, who hold the same wrongheaded stand.

But far worse, outside the ...Read more

Gov. Ron DeSantis is appealing to voters’ fears of streets and businesses being overcome by the stench of pot smoke if a proposed Florida constitutional amendment is approved this fall.

It’s classical DeSantis: Amp up mental images of children under threat, choking on second-hand smoke — except he fails to mention that he and lawmakers ...Read more