Fintan O’Toole Savior Complex Biden’s tragedy is that he has come to feel that he alone can rescue America. July 2, 2024
Duncan Hosie The Hollowing of the Eighth Amendment The Supreme Court’s Republican majority has been quietly rolling back a longstanding consensus over cruel and unusual punishment. June 18, 2024
Sean Wilentz The Immunity Con For the first time in American history, the supreme judicial authority is parsing how much criminality to permit the chief executive. May 1, 2024
Sean Wilentz Trump’s Delayed Reckoning The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to grant Donald Trump criminal immunity—but its handling of the case has already worked in his favor. April 18, 2024
Sean Wilentz The Constitution Turned Upside Down Any account of Trump v. Anderson should lead with the fact that the Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that an insurrectionist will remain on the presidential ballot. March 6, 2024
Sean Wilentz A Historic Abdication If the Supreme Court decides not to rule on whether Trump should be disqualified, it could set off precisely the crisis it hopes to avoid. February 12, 2024
Fintan O’Toole The Memory Hole By drawing broad conclusions about Joe Biden’s mental capacities, Robert Hur’s special counsel report went far beyond its remit—but it still leaves Democrats with a political dilemma. February 11, 2024
Nadia Abu El-Haj ‘The Eye of the Beholder’ Administrators at Columbia and other US universities have been cracking down on student protest against the war in Gaza—even as right-wing politicians demand they go further. December 24, 2023
Fintan O’Toole Paradise Lost In spreading lies about the risks of vaccines, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long played on anxieties about purity and pollution. September 7, 2023
Fintan O’Toole A Frame-Up in Georgia By launching a campaign of lies and harassment against an innocent Georgia election worker, the Trump team proved how much cruelty it was willing to inflict on ordinary people who stood in its way. August 17, 2023