Nation Topics - The Constitution

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Nation Topics - The Constitution

Articles

Military Detention for Journalists (Journalists and Journalism, Law, US Military, The Constitution)

Why did Obama administration lawyers refuse to discount the possibility, even for First Amendment–protected speech?

David Cole

Throwaway People: Will Teens Sent to Die in Prison Get a Second Chance? (Youth, Jails and Prisons, The Constitution)

Trina Garnett accidentally set a fatal fire when she was 14. That was in 1976. Could a Supreme Court ruling on juvenile life without parole finally bring her home?

Liliana Segura

Roger Williams, America's First Rebel (Government, Religion, The Constitution)

The founder of Providence was the first to see that religious freedom, and separation of church and state, was intimately connected with political freedom.

John M. Barry

A New Low in Attacks on Freedom of Speech (Law, The Constitution)

Tarek Mehanna got seventeen years in prison for translating a document.

David Cole

Occupy and the Right to Protest (Movements, Occupy Wall Street, Police Brutality, The Constitution)

Could litigation over the Occupy movement strengthen First Amendment rights for protesters?

Laura Bolt

Why the Supreme Court Matters (The Constitution, The Courts)

A GOP win in November would move the most conservative bench in history even further to the right.

Ari Berman

The True Horror of the 'Florence' Decision (Sex and Sexuality, Jails and Prisons, The Constitution, The Courts)

The Supreme Court—as well as the Obama administration—upholds the right of the world’s biggest jailer to strip everyone who comes into its grasp.

JoAnn Wypijewski

Free Abdulelah Shaye (Barack Obama, Jails and Prisons, The Constitution, World)

To its shame, the Obama administration continues to defend its role in the case of a jailed Yemeni journalist.

The Editors

Why the ACLU Is Wrong About 'Citizens United' (Citizens United v. FEC, The Constitution)

A former ACLU attorney points out that corporate spending on political campaigns is not “free speech” deserving First Amendment protection.

Burt Neuborne

Eggs Are People Too! (Trayvon Martin, Healthcare Policy, Reproductive Rights, Law, The Constitution)

Today's “right to life” rhetoric is a bizarre cross between the theological imperative to be fruitful and multiply and the fetishism of microbiological cellular promise.

Patricia J. Williams

Blogs

Supreme Court Wrangling Aside, We Still Need 'Medicare for All'

John Nichols

What if the justices scrap healthcare reform as the Obama administration imagines it? What if they don't? Nurses say the healthcare crisis will still demand real reform.

March 27, 2012

How Would the Supreme Court Ruling on Health Care Reform Affect the Election?

Ben Adler

The Republican base is just as likely to be outraged by a decision on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.

September 28, 2011

Supreme Court Removes Another Barrier to Corporate Ownership of Elections

With a decision barring matching funds to counter attack ads from privately funded candidates, the court has undermined one of the last tools for fair elections.

June 27, 2011

Patriot Act Extension Scheme Sells Out the Constitution

John Nichols

The plan to renew the Patriot Act may have the backing of Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders and the Obama White House. But this is bad bipartisanship.

May 23, 2011

What Good is the 14th Amendment?

The Notion

The 14th amendment has done it again! No wonder right wing radicals want to repeal it.

August 5, 2010

Make CEOs Take Responsibility for Democracy-Warping Ads

John Nichols

As someone who has written several books and dozens of major articles on judicial interventions in our politics, and who has covered literally hundreds of campaigns in every state of the country, I have made no secret about my sense that the best response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to let corporations spend freely on campaigns is a constitutional amendment to protect our democracy from being overwhelmed with corporate cash.

February 11, 2010

Donna Edwards' No Corporate Monopoly of Elections Amendment

John Nichols

Maryland Congresswoman Donna Edwards turned to Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis for guidance in framing the Constitutional amendment she proposed Tuesday as the right and necessary response to the decision by Chief Justice John Roberts and a high court majority to abandon law and precedent with the purpose of permitting corporations to dominate the political discourse.

February 2, 2010

Calling Out "Not True" Alito

John Nichols

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he said he would not bring a political agenda to the high court, became the unexpected "star" of State of the Union night by playing the part of the sullen teenager.

January 30, 2010