[ad_1] NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE M y Villanova University colleague Massimo Faggioli has an online contribution at Politico about Judge Amy Coney Barrett arguing that as “a Catholic scholar” he thinks it is fine “to ask questions about Barrett’s religious beliefs.” Along the way, he sets up and knocks down a series of strawman arguments, engages

[ad_1] President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a news conference at the White House, September 23, 2020. (Tom Brenner/Reuters) The answer to the question, “Will your administration oversee a peaceful transfer of power after the impending election?” is, without exception, “Yes.” It would be better for the United States, and for this administration, if

[ad_1] A formation of the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron “Blue Angels” and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds fly over the National Mall in Washington, D.C., May 2, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) “The prospects of statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., have never been greater, but many significant obstacles loom,” The Hill declares. The Constitution

[ad_1] Sather Tower rises above the University of California at Berkeley. (Noah Berger/Reuters) The husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) admitted on Thursday to sending an inappropriate letter identified in a state audit that appeared to help an applicant to the University of California, Berkeley, get accepted to the school. The California State Auditor

[ad_1] Rep. Jim Jordan (R, Ohio) speaks to reporters in Washington, D.C., January 23, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) Representative Jim Jordan on Thursday sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding that he provide answers on whether his agency is investigating allegations against Hunter Biden that appeared in a report by Senate Republicans this week.

[ad_1] Nothing in Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s record provides any support for the charge that she would indulge her Catholic faith and her putative pro-life convictions in deciding cases, and one of her votes cuts directly against such a charge. During her three years on the Seventh Circuit, Judge Barrett has taken part in two

[ad_1] U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) In Politico, Massimo Faggioli says that if Judge Amy Barrett is nominated to the Supreme Court, senators ought to look into her religious beliefs and affiliations, even in ways that might seem intrusive. It is a thoroughly dishonest op-ed, and the dishonesty starts in the

[ad_1] President Donald Trump delivers a campaign speech at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pa., September 3, 2020. (Leah Millis/Reuters) I’ve been noodling the idea of launching a Trump Translation Service for the large number of Trumpish phrases that his critics and the media don’t understand. It would be very expensive, because I really

[ad_1] Sen. Dick Durbin, speaking during a Senate Judiciary Committee business meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., June 11, 2020. (Carolyn Kaster/Reuters) Senate Democratic whip Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) on Wednesday denied reports that Democrats are considering adding more justices to the Supreme Court if they win the Senate and White House, saying there

[ad_1] (Caiaimage/Robert Daly/Getty Images) The Justice Department filed a statement of interest this week supporting a lawsuit challenging New Mexico’s different capacity limits for in-person classes at private and public schools, with private schools facing more stringent reopening restrictions. In a brief filed in the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, the DOJ said that New

[ad_1] Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh speaks at a ceremonial swearing-in at the White House, October 8, 2018. (Jim Bourg/Reuters) On the menu today: The surprising but compelling argument that Brett Kavanaugh now represents the swing vote on the U.S. Supreme Court offers Democrats a hard, tough lesson on how their scorched-earth tactics tend

[ad_1] New Lexus automobiles for sale after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the state will ban the sale of new gasoline powered passenger cars and trucks starting in 2035 in Carlsbad, Calif., September 23, 2020. (Mike Blake/Reuters) California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an order on Wednesday that aims to end the sale of new internal

[ad_1] NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE A merican universities are in decline. But the oft-cited culprits — administrative bloat, the evisceration of the humanities, and “cancel culture” — are not the most serious problems. It is the academic sciences that pose the gravest threat. Far from being the last bastions of cool rationality and objectivity on campuses,

[ad_1] Antonin Scalia in 2010 (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) On February 15, 2016, Notre Dame law professor Amy Barrett talked on CBS about filling the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death two days previously. Because that interview is being misrepresented in various quarters, I’m going to go through what she said. The first relevant portion comes

[ad_1] Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks at a Hispanic Heritage Month event in Kissimmee, Fla., September 15, 2020. (Leah Millis/Reuters) There is nothing wrong with having political preferences and intellectual priors. But sometimes they can lead you down some odd roads. In the New York Times today, Thomas Edsall quotes some observations made by Ian

[ad_1] Donny Deutsch speaks at a panel in Beverly Hills, California August 12, 2015. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters) Former MSNBC host Donny Deutsch compared President Trump to Adolf Hitler on Wednesday and accused Jewish supporters of the president of “walking like a lemming off a cliff.” In an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Deutsch compared Trump’s latest

[ad_1] Rep. Nadler (D., NY) asks a question of A. G. William Barr who appears before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., July 28, 2020. (Matt McClain/Reuters) The lasting damage from the Trump years will be the norm-busting by congressional Democrats. The unintended consequences of the House Democrats’ anti-Trump derangement, in

[ad_1] Senator Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) departs from a lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., September 10, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) Senator Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) said on Tuesday that she wouldn’t rule out voting to confirm President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court before election day. Murkowski initially opposed a vote before the elections,

[ad_1] A grade six classroom awaits students at Hunter’s Glen Junior Public School in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, September 14, 2020. (Nathan Denette/Reuters) As the coronavirus pandemic keeps many schools shuttered and forces parents to consider other options for their children’s education, support for school choice has spiked among parents of children who attend public school. Since

[ad_1] Hunter Biden speaks during the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis., August 20, 2020. (DNC/Reuters) The same media outlets that have obsessively covered the Trump family’s overseas business dealings have all but ignored a Senate report released Wednesday that details what appears to be a vast influence peddling network established by Hunter Biden while

[ad_1] Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, his wife Jill Biden and Senator and Democratic candidate for Vice President Kamala Harris celebrate outside the Chase Center during the 2020 Democratic National Convention, in Wilmington, Del., August 20, 2020. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) Should Joe Biden blow the lead he has held virtually all year

[ad_1] Senator Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.) speaks during an oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., June 16, 2020. Senator Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.) on Wednesday criticized fellow Senate Democrats for their scrutiny of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s religious beliefs, saying “religion should not enter into” the conversation over who will fill

[ad_1] Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (Molly Riley/Reuters) Over on the home page, Dan McLaughlin has an excellent and persuasive column arguing that Republican senators should do what they believe is right, regardless of any potential political risk in November: Consider President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court and, presuming they find the nominee

[ad_1] In 2017, every single Supreme Court law clerk who clerked the same term (October Term 1998) that Amy Coney Barrett clerked for Justice Scalia signed a letter supporting her nomination to the Seventh Circuit. In that letter, the signatories hailed Barrett as a “woman of remarkable intellect and character,” as someone who “conducted herself

[ad_1] NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE T he University of Edinburgh has canceled David Hume. In response to an online petition portraying Hume as “a man who championed white supremacy,” the university has stated that the 18th-century Scotsman’s name will be erased from the tallest building on campus. “The interim decision [pending further review] has been taken,”

[ad_1] Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks to union carpenters during a campaign event in Hermantown, Minn., September 18, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) On an issue that could effectively create a revolution, the candidate is mum. President Trump gets a lot of heat for his answers to questions. Much of the criticism is appropriate, some of

[ad_1] Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 5, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/Reuters) Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) on Tuesday hit back at criticism of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, one of two potential nominees to the Supreme Court, connected to her Catholic faith. Barrett is reportedly a member of People

[ad_1] Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to the media after the Republican policy luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., September 22, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has created yet more political pandemonium in a year that has already had far more than its share. And it has

[ad_1] Writing in The Week, Ryan Cooper calls Judge Barrett “a hard-line social conservative who has suggested that paper money, West Virginia, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Social Security Administration are all possibly unconstitutional.” If that sounds weird, it’s a good sign that the matter bears some more scrutiny. What Barrett wrote, in a co-authored law-review

[ad_1] People gather in front of the Supreme Court following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Washington, D.C., September 18, 2020. (Al Drago/Reuters) History shows why it must be filled by this president and this Senate. No party that controls both the White House and the Senate going into a general election would ever