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Should immigration policy be left to states?

According to a recent poll, over three-quarters of the Americans who voted for Harris in 2024 believe immigration makes the United States better off. Fewer than one-quarter of those who voted for Trump agree. It sure looks like voters in blue states support immigration, while those in red states do not. There is a way for the opposing camps to both be satisfied. In Canada, decisions about immigration are influenced heavily by the provinces, which can decide how many immigrants they want and which kinds of applicants best meet their local needs. Why couldn’t the United States do ...

Does US still have Constitution?

Legal scholars have many lenses through which to examine the Constitution. Lawyers need to master about 150 Supreme Court decisions in order to have a sufficient understanding of the government. But most of what lawyers have studied is theory — how the Constitution is supposed to work, as opposed to how it actually does work. This “supposed to” versus “actually does” conundrum is often called the formal versus the functional. Formally, the United States still has a Constitution. We still have the three branches of government. Congress still has the House of Representatives ...

‘Once Upon a Time’ is place we can find again

"Where is the good news?" my son asked the other day, the kind of simple question that can only come from a child. Obvious, sensical, trusting. He still believes in our essential goodness and still wants to know about humanity's small kindnesses and large achievements. We had been talking about doomscrolling on the way to school, our very modern addiction to pain and suffering. "People want to know what's happening in the world -- sometimes," I had explained, unable to stop myself from adding the caveat, admitting my repulsion at current events. My children wanted to ...

Party’s search continues on for new cause

Monday, Jan. 19, marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national holiday honoring a man best remembered for urging Americans to judge one another by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. It is a legacy rooted in a specific historical struggle -- one that culminated in the Civil Rights Act after years of fierce resistance, largely from Southern Democrats, to dismantling Jim Crow. Since that era ended, the Democratic Party has repeatedly searched for what might come next: a successor to the civil rights movement that once defined its moral authority. ...

Redistricting scheme done in name of ‘democracy’

Virginia is the new Illinois. The practice of drawing partisan districts is named after Elbridge Gerry, the 19th century Massachusetts governor. Even he might blush at the extreme gerrymander that Democrats in the commonwealth are pushing. They want to go from a congressional delegation with 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans -- broadly representing the partisan makeup of the state -- to a 10-1 Democratic advantage. In other words, purplish Virginia would have a congressional delegation that, in percentage terms, would be more Democratic than that of Illinois; Virginia's delegation would ...

Patterns, not paranoia, are necessary reckoning

Americans are often warned about the dangers of overreaction, hysteria or xenophobia, and rightly so. But there is an equal danger in denial. What the country has witnessed over the past several years is not a series of disconnected curiosities, nor the product of political imagination. It is a pattern of incursions, violations and exploitations that demand sober attention and serious response. Start with what was visible to everyone: a Chinese surveillance balloon traversing U.S. airspace before being shot down off the American coast. This was not speculation. It was confirmed by the ...