[ad_1] Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn departs after a plea hearing at U.S. District Court, in Washington, D.C., December 1, 2017. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) It’s another masterpiece of implausibility from Jonathan Chait Farewell, Logan Act violation. The new-old theory about why it was perfectly legitimate and okay and not at all vindictive for the outgoing

[ad_1] Brett Kavanaugh is sworn in prior to testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, September 27, 2018. (Tom Williams/Pool via Reuters) Ever since Donald Trump’s election, liberal judges have aligned themselves with the political “resistance,” holding this administration to a different standard from its predecessors. As I have written before, we have seen this trend

[ad_1] The Apple Inc. logo is seen hanging at the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in New York, U.S., October 16, 2019. (Mike Segar/Reuters) China is preparing to place U.S. companies including Apple and Boeing on an “unreliable entities list” in response to newly announced sanctions on tech giant Huawei. “China will

[ad_1] Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) wears a protective mask during a Senate Armed Services hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 7, 2020. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via Reuters) Their culture-war status notwithstanding, masks are effective — and their widespread use makes government intervention less likely. In the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, the surgeon

[ad_1] Education secretary Betsy DeVos delivers a policy address on Title IX enforcement at George Mason University, September 7, 2017. (Mike Theiler/Reuters) A headline from The Onion from a few years back: “ACLU Defends Nazis’ Right to Burn Down ACLU Headquarters.” This is comic hyperbole built on an underlying truth: The ACLU had principles and

[ad_1] Jeb Bush, then governor of Florida, holds a news conference at the Florida Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee on October 26, 2005. (Mark Wallheiser / Reuters) Yesterday, I recorded a podcast with Jeb Bush, here. The main topic, of course, is the pandemic and how to handle it. This is the governors’ hour, you

[ad_1] A police officer walks near demonstrators in vehicles protesting against lockdown measures during a demonstration calling for the reopening of the state of Virginia in Richmond, Va., April 22, 2020. (Leah Millis/Reuters) We want to enjoy the pleasures and benefits of civil disobedience without paying the price for them. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE T he

[ad_1] A man reaches for a face mask being distributed by Urban Park Rangers as the coronavirus outbreak continues in Queens, N.Y., May 4, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) Be charitable to your fellow Americans, because they’re just like you: trying to live the best they can while the coronavirus remains a threat. If you judged by

[ad_1] You might recall the notorious Second Circuit ruling in Ricci v. DeStefano in 2008, in which then-Second Circuit judge Sonia Sotomayor and her panel colleagues tried to bury the claims by 19 white firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter that New Haven city officials engaged in racially discriminatory practices by throwing out the results of

[ad_1] People with face masks walk at Columbia University in New York City, March 9, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) Leading college Republicans and Democrats have teamed up to establish a non-profit to combat Chinese government influence on American campuses. In its first official act, the Athenai Institute released a letter on Wednesday calling for the closure

[ad_1] Demonstrators protest the extension of the emergency Safer at Home order by State Governor Tony Evers to slow the spread of the coronavirus, outside the State Capitol building in Madison, Wis., April 24, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) The state supreme-court decision strikes a blow for separation of powers. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE W hile several federal

[ad_1] Rick Bright (left), former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, arrives at a hearing on the Trump administration’s coronavirus response on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 14, 2020. (Erin Scott/Reuters) Rick Bright, the ousted Health and Human Services official who testified Thursday to Congress that the Trump administration was not

[ad_1] Senator Lindsey Graham prior to hearing testimony on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., December 11, 2019 (Erin Scott/Reuters) Senator Lindsey Graham pushed back Thursday against President Trump’s exhortation that he call former President Obama to testify to Congress about efforts by Obama administration officials to “unmask” former national-security adviser Michael Flynn. “If I were a Senator or

[ad_1] In an opinion today, the en banc Fourth Circuit ruled by a vote of 9 to 6 that President Trump was not entitled to have the Emoluments Clause litigation in District of Columbia v. Trump dismissed. The court divided along ideological lines.* The majority, in a rather brisk opinion by Judge Diana Gribbon Motz,

[ad_1] The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., June 11, 2018 (Erin Schaff/Reuters) On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in two cases that concern the proper scope of the “ministerial exception,” Morrissey-Berru v. Our Lady of Guadalupe School and Biel v. St. James School. Both cases involve fifth-grade teachers at Catholic elementary schools

[ad_1] Statue of George Washington outside the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond, Va., February 8, 2019. (Jay Paul/Reuters) What America’s Founders can teach us about COVID-19 The United States was born amid an epidemic. As our Founding generation struggled to free themselves from tyranny, they faced a foe even deadlier than the king’s troops:

[ad_1] President Donald Trump speaks to the media about a deal to end the partial government shutdown at the White House in Washington, D.C., January 25, 2019. (Jim Young/REUTERS) On the menu today: a long look at the myriad challenges facing the person to take the oath of office to be president on January 20,

[ad_1] Sen. Richard Burr arrives for a briefing in Washington, D.C., January 8, 2020. (Al Drago/Reuters) FBI agents served a warrant at Senator Richard Burr’s (R., N.C.) Washington, D.C., home on Wednesday and confiscated his cell phone as part of an investigation into stock trades the senator made before the coronavirus pandemic sent Wall Street

[ad_1] Former national security adviser Michael Flynn exits a vehicle as he arrives for his sentencing hearing at District Court in Washington, D.C., December 18, 2018. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst) The judge presiding over the Michael Flynn case ordered the appointment of a third party to “to present arguments in opposition” to the Department of Justice’s decision

[ad_1] President Trump has been right, in my view, to seek a looser monetary policy throughout his time in office. On that fundamental question, his instincts have been better than Fed chairman Jay Powell’s. Over the last two days, Trump and Powell have expressed differing views on another monetary issue, with the former seeking negative

[ad_1] An Evo II drone flies in the Autel booth at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev., January 8, 2020. (Steve Marcus/Reuters) Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday announced an inquiry into the use of Chinese-made drones by U.S. state and local police forces. U.S. intelligence agencies have warned

[ad_1] Sen. Rand Paul (Chris Keane/Reuters) Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) on Wednesday invited acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell to testify regarding the “unmasking” of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. “Yesterday I wrote to DNI Richard Grenell requesting the names of those who were involved in Gen Flynn’s unmasking,” Paul wrote on

[ad_1] Last week, two New York Times reporters wrote a sloppy article trying to make something out of the fact that Judge (and D.C. Circuit nominee) Justin Walker was one of the 200-plus judges who signed a letter in opposition to the Code of Conduct Committee’s proposed opinion that federal judges may not be members

[ad_1] (Carlos Jasso/Reuters) The long dance between the EU’s European Court of Justice (ECJ) and Germany’s constitutional court (BVG) over the two ‘supreme courts’’ radically different views of who has the last word on the interpretation of EU law and on the legality of the actions of EU institutions has, for the most part, been

[ad_1] Former Vice President Joe Biden at the Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas, Nev., February 19, 2020. (Mike Blake/Reuters) Former vice president Joe Biden appears on a declassified list of Obama administration officials who requested the unmasking of former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn. The list, obtained by CBS News, shows that

[ad_1] President Donald Trump meets with China’s President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) The president has not been as tough on Beijing as he’d like you to think. How much of what we hear from day to day is really just meant to please the Chinese

[ad_1] Anthony Weiner, Eric Massa, Chris Lee, Tim Murphy . . . Two were Republicans, two were Democrats. What each member of Congress had in common is that he resigned in disgrace following a sex scandal, and the ensuing special election flipped his House seat to the opposing party. The other commonality, of course: They

[ad_1] Shoppers keep social distance as they wait in line on the sidewalk outside a grocery store in Washington, D.C., April 14, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) On the menu today: why our response to the virus has always been hobbled by our individual and collective difficulty accepting hard truths; why we shouldn’t be surprised that doctors

[ad_1] Illinois State Capitol in Springfield (benkrut/Getty Images Plus) Provide assistance, but require states to pay off their unfunded liabilities. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE W hen Congress was deliberating about a massive coronavirus stimulus package in late March, the Democrats decided that they wanted to attach some strings to the money they were handing out. For

[ad_1] President Obama at a White House press conference in 2016. (Carlos Barria/Reuters) There’s no reason to ignore the mounting evidence that Obama administration officials were corrupt in their handling of the Trump–Russia investigation. Those sharing #Obamagate hashtags on Twitter would do best to avoid the hysterics we saw from Russian-collusion believers, but they have