On July 4, we will celebrate American independence from kings who ruled over both church and state. Two hundred and fifty years ago, the founders of this country put forward a bold and radical idea: that religious freedom is safest when the government neither controls religion nor is controlled by it.

The founders were not perfect; at the ...Read more

Long ago, when most Americans left the house for mass entertainment, they flocked to carnivals that crisscrossed the country to delight small towns and big cities. Shows typically included a barker whose steady stream of superfluous oratory enticed folks to spend their hard-earned cash on sometimes dubious performances.

Too often today, our ...Read more

As we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, we reflect on the founding ideals of the United States—liberty, responsibility and the moral character required to sustain a nation. These principles were never meant to remain static. From the beginning, they invited reflection, growth and a broader understanding of what—and who—deserves ...Read more

The current round of House remapping around the nation was fueled by the president asking Texas for “five more seats” so that Republicans could retain control of the House in this year’s midterm elections.

Historically, the party that holds the White House loses House seats in the midterms. Since 1938, the only exceptions to this outcome ...Read more

Abdul El-Sayed has a curious interpretation of both free speech and how justice should be applied.

The Democratic candidate for Michigan's open Senate seat is selling the idea that the First Amendment covers violence and vandalism, if done in the name of a political cause.

I'm a free speech absolutist. I don't think hate speech should be ...Read more

Noah Cross, the archvillain of the movie "Chinatown," had the definitive line on how old age brings respectability. "'Course I'm respectable," he tells Jake Gittes. "I'm old. Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough."

I wouldn't necessarily slot former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan into any ...Read more

When I wake in the morning, there are no signs of the new day. There are no windows in my cell, and a light has been on all night. Like one long nightmare, it can be difficult to keep track of when one day ends and the next begins. And so life goes inside the California City Detention Facility. It feels like the land of the living dead.

Outside...Read more

This past Juneteenth weekend saw a spate of shooting incidents that underscored a disturbing trend. In 2026, Chicago is backsliding on what had been strikingly positive declines in shootings and murders while peer cities like New York and Los Angeles continue to see improvement this year.

The most shocking of the weekend’s carnage was the ...Read more

"Where's my Roy Cohn?" President Donald Trump famously asked in his first term, angrily despairing at not having an attorney general who'd serve his interests, no holds barred, just as Trump's reptilian mentor and fixer Cohn had done for clients from the notorious red-baiting Sen. Joe McCarthy to New York mob bosses and a young Trump.

For his ...Read more

On June 17, President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding laying out a framework for ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. International media deemed this agreement as a significant diplomatic achievement. But inside Iran, a fundamental question remains: Whose peace is ...Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to intervene against Evanston, Illinois’ local reparations program is being framed as a defense of constitutional equality and the Fair Housing Act. In reality, it reflects a painfully shortsighted understanding of what equality requires when government itself amplified and even created enduring ...Read more

It has long been clear to anybody outside the die-hard MAGA scene that America First would sooner or later amount to America Alone. And still, the accelerating pace at which President Donald Trump is alienating other nations and isolating his own is breathtaking.

As one example of this pathology, consider his recent interactions with Italy’s ...Read more

For about a decade, hundreds of deep-sea buoys off America’s coasts have been monitoring the conditions of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The streams of publicly available data they produce inform weather reports, generate valuable information about the planet’s changing climate and help the maritime industry and even the military maneuver...Read more

Second lady Usha Vance’s due date is rapidly approaching. I have no idea how healthcare expenses are treated for the vice president’s family. But JD Vance has long been an advocate for $0 out-of-pocket costs for giving birth. He is not alone. A bicameral, bipartisan group in Congress is working to make free birth a reality for all Americans....Read more

June 2025’s 12-Day War and President Donald Trump’s Operation Epic Fury have shattered the myth of Iran’s military might, inflicting heavy losses on the Islamic Republic and forcing it to the negotiating table. However, Tehran is already attempting to reclaim through diplomacy what it lost on the battlefield. It wants a quick deal, and ...Read more

Have rising material expectations made marriage feel less attainable for today’s young adults?

Marriage rates have steadily been declining for several decades. Roughly one-third of Gen Z is expected to remain single by age 45, and to perhaps never marry at all.

A common reason young adults give for not being married is a lack of financial ...Read more

Student loans are a special kind of debt. They are an investment to increase someone’s future earnings, though they must be paid back before most of those earnings are realized. Most of the loans are directly from the government, which not so long ago was telling borrowers they wouldn’t have to pay them back, and didn’t require them to. ...Read more

As military action between the United States and Iran appears to be winding down and negotiations continue, the remaining issues are frustrating commentators eager to spin this as another example of endless conflict.

However, when measured by military capability, economic leverage, strategic positioning and long-term deterrence, the outcome is...Read more

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently stood before a cheering crowd in Brooklyn and delivered a troubling indictment of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel advocacy organization that has increasingly become a political villain in certain corners of both the left and right. Mamdani described AIPAC as one of the “...Read more