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The Fashionable Notion of 'Free Speech Culture' Is Justifying State Censorship, Ironically
It'll convince people that free speech is a sham
 • Ken White
The Trump Administration Is Bulldozing the Bill of Rights to Crack Down on Americans Resisting its Violent Deportation Drive
Our early-February selection of the president's latest and greatest assaults on the rule of law
 • Executive Watch
Americans Need Legal Remedies Restored Now to Protect Themselves Against Reckless ICE Agents
Congress, state legislatures, and courts can take steps to reopen avenues for litigation unduly closed off
 • Anya A. Bidwell and Marie Miller
Has the Trump Administration Crossed the Rubicon When Lawlessness Makes Lawful Transition Impossible?
It may have reached a point when its only option for avoiding accountability would be keeping Democrats out of power
 • Birch Smith
From Athens to Sparta: How Trumpism Is Driving America’s Decline
Civilizations commit suicide when they build walls against the outside world
 • Johan Norberg

Recent posts

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A Song for Alex Pretti and Renee Good
Don't Resist, Just Obey
 • Kyle Varner, MD
1:00:32
Does America Need a Deeper State to Save It? A Conversation with Tyler Cowen and Francis Fukuyama
Two of the foremost thinkers of our time debate whether America has enough 'state capacity' for effective governance
 • Shikha Dalmia
In Trump's 'Dual State,' Dissenters Face Extrajudicial Executions, Loyalists Enjoy Protections
America's system of justice has fundamentally broken because the regime believes it can justify attacks on citizens via lies rather than in a court of…
 • Kyle Varner, MD
Trump's Tyranny Is No Laughing Matter: A Video Roundup
Our late-January collection of clips on the president's contempt for America’s sacred governing norms
 • Landry Ayres
The Dark Ideology Behind Stephen Miller's Immigration Crusade: Part II
He believes immigration threatens Western civilization itself, echoing the same xenophobia once directed at his own ancestors
 • Greg Sargent
Trump’s Attempted Greenland Grab Has Turned America Into a Predatory Power
His bid might have been thwarted for now, but America will be regarded as a global threat going forward
 • Berny Belvedere
Stephen Miller’s Assault on America’s Immigrant Legacy: Part I
The man whose Russian Jewish ancestors fled persecution now oversees a sweeping deportation machine designed to terrorize immigrant families
 • Greg Sargent
We'd Have Been Committed for Predicting Half of What Trump Has Done
We, not our detractors, were the clear-eyed and clear-headed ones, but that is no comfort right now
 • Jacob Grier
Trump Has Hollowed, Weaponized, and Perverted the Department of Justice
Its Civil Rights Division is now protecting gun owners instead of disadvantaged minorities facing discrimination
 • Paul Rosenzweig
Trump Attacks Minneapolis, Venezuela, and Threatens Greenland: An Executive Watch Roundup
Our mid-January selection of the president's latest and greatest assaults on the rule of law. These two weeks have been a bumper period for abuses since…
 • Executive Watch
The Colorado Governor Should Reject Trump’s Demand to Pardon a Convicted Election Saboteur
Jared Polis will jeopardize our democracy by freeing Tina Peters
 • Andy Craig
Life in a City Occupied by ICE
How Minneapolis residents are coping after their own government declared war on them
 • Taylor Carik
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Birch Smith
Has the Trump Administration Crossed the Rubicon When Lawlessness Makes Lawful Transition Impossible?
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Shikha Dalmia
Does America Need a Deeper State to Save It? A Conversation with Tyler Cowen and Francis Fukuyama
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Landry Ayres
Trump's Tyranny Is No Laughing Matter: A Video Roundup
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Berny Belvedere
Trump’s Attempted Greenland Grab Has Turned America Into a Predatory Power
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The Colorado Governor Should Reject Trump’s Demand to Pardon a Convicted Election Saboteur
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Defending liberal democracy against authoritarianism in the U.S. and around the world.

Reconstruction Agenda

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50:39
What Tools Does Congress Still Retain to Control a Recalcitrant Executive? A Conversation with Josh Chafetz
Eventually, though, Congress needs to fix itself to effectively rein in the president
 • Andy Craig
Founders Would Be Horrified by Congress's Surrender of its Power of the Purse to POTUS
The shutdown is testimony to how a subservient legislature makes governance dysfunctional
 • Molly Reynolds
1:04:52
The Founders Never Meant to Give the President Unchecked Removal Powers: A Conversation with Noah Rosenblum
It would be a constitutional mistake for the Roberts Court to overturn Humphrey's Executor and embrace an extreme version of the Unitary Executive…
 • Andy Craig
Introducing: The Reconstruction Agenda
Liberals need to start planning for a post-authoritarian future and rebuilding stronger institutions that a rogue president can’t so easily take over…
 • Andy Craig
Trump Is Using Fake Emergencies to Grab More Power than King George III
He has complete contempt for the legal and statutory limits to his authority so more laws will not constrain him
 • Chris Edelson
Trump’s Leaked Plan to Deploy the Texas National Guard Against Illinois Will Tear Apart the Union
If it goes forward, it will plunge the country into an unprecedented constitutional crisis
 • Andy Craig
A Trump Appointee Slaps Down Pam Bondi’s Malign Lawsuit Against Maryland Judges
Her attempt to weaponize the DOJ and intimidate them for upholding basic due process for vulnerable migrants failed
 • Walter Olson
The Truth Is, There Are No Legal Limits on an American President’s Warmaking
And the public no longer really cares about distant wars whose bill won’t come due for a while
 • Trevor Burrus

Podcasts

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1:00:32
Does America Need a Deeper State to Save It? A Conversation with Tyler Cowen and Francis Fukuyama
Two of the foremost thinkers of our time debate whether America has enough 'state capacity' for effective governance
 • Shikha Dalmia
59:06
ICE Is Only Getting Started, the Worst Is Yet to Come: A Conversation with David J. Bier
Massive new funding for an agency that respects neither laws nor human life will turbocharge its abuses
 • Shikha Dalmia
50:39
What Tools Does Congress Still Retain to Control a Recalcitrant Executive? A Conversation with Josh Chafetz
Eventually, though, Congress needs to fix itself to effectively rein in the president
 • Andy Craig
46:47
A Persecution Complex Links the Pilgrims and Christian Nationalism: A Conversation With Tyler Huckabee
Evangelicals are espousing a faith based on their political project, not a sincere interpretation of the Bible
 • Berny Belvedere
56:15
America Will Need a Reconstruction Project After Trump: A Conversation with Shikha Dalmia and Andy Craig
Liberals will have to rebuild the institutions of governance and accountability that Trump is destroying and The UnPopulist plans to lead the way
 • Aaron Ross Powell
1:04:52
The Founders Never Meant to Give the President Unchecked Removal Powers: A Conversation with Noah Rosenblum
It would be a constitutional mistake for the Roberts Court to overturn Humphrey's Executor and embrace an extreme version of the Unitary Executive…
 • Andy Craig
Podcasts
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Zooming In at The UnPopulist
Does America Need a Deeper State to Save It? A Conversation with Tyler Cowen and Francis Fukuyama
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Reconstruction Agenda
What Tools Does Congress Still Retain to Control a Recalcitrant Executive? A Conversation with Josh Chafetz
Recommendations
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The Argument
The Argument
Jerusalem Demsas
Infinite Scroll
Infinite Scroll
Jeremiah Johnson
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Can We Still Govern?
Don Moynihan
Executive Functions
Executive Functions
Jack Goldsmith
Liberal Currents
Liberal Currents
Liberal Currents
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Book Reviews

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Let’s Not Grant the Postliberal Critique of Market Liberalism
Discontents with liberal modernity are perennial and a spiritual awakening won't cure them
 • Jonathan Rauch
Bernie Sanders Wants to Counter MAGA's Gains With the Working Class by Challenging the Oligarchy
He wants his party to offer a bold social democratic alternative to the neoliberal consensus just as Trump has done on the right
 • Matthew McManus
The Neo Right's Multi-Front Revolt Against America
A political theorist traces the intellectual history of the various strains of a movement gone rogue
 • William Galston
Why Is the American Experiment in Trouble? Simple: A Demagogue Has Ignited the ‘Dark Passions’ of the People
Liberalism’s real failure is that it assumes far too sunny a view of human nature, three recent books suggest
 • Jonathan Rauch
Is the Lack of ‘Friction’ in Our Virtual World Leading to Liberalism’s Decline?
Our rapid-fire communication technologies may be overwhelming our capacity to deliberate and empathize, two new books suggest
 • J. L. Wall
'Abundance’ Offers a Sounder Way Forward for the Left than Degrowth or Redistributive Progressivism
But the authors of this important book might have been more effective had they chosen a less confrontational strategy with their own side
 • Samantha Hancox-Li

World

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Trump’s Attempted Greenland Grab Has Turned America Into a Predatory Power
His bid might have been thwarted for now, but America will be regarded as a global threat going forward
 • Berny Belvedere
The Iranian Regime Is Nothing but an Occupying Force Now: An Interview with Roya Hakakian
Its very illegitimacy might make it more brutal if it hangs on
 • Berny Belvedere
Trump Is Ensuring That His Venezuela Attack Has No Upside for Anyone
Venezuelan democracy, America, and the world are all going to lose
 • Nicholas Grossman
Trump’s Betrayal of Venezuela’s Democracy Movement Is Hard to Overstate
If he continues to snub María Corina Machado, the heroine of the opposition, America will bear responsiblity for the country’s next tragic chapter
 • Larry Diamond
Trump’s Bogus Rationale for Invading Venezuela Is an Impeachable Offense
The Framers would have regarded this president as an out-of-control lunatic in desperate need of reining in by Congress
 • Andy Craig
A Banner Year for Domestic and Global Censorship by the US
The Trump administration is using state muscle in unprecedented ways to suppress speech it dislikes
 • Katherine Stewart
Trump and Putin Are Trying to Rescue Hungarian Strongman Orbán from Electoral Defeat
It is unclear if they'll succeed but they show that the world's autocrats are working hard to keep each other in power
 • H. David Baer
Even by a Strict Definition, Elon Musk Is a Fascist
He is weaponizing Tolkien to promote violence by ‘hard men’ against Asian immigrants
 • Toby Buckle
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