[ad_1] Ranking Member Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, October 14, 2020. (Bonnie Cash/Pool via Reuters) As the Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up its hearings for Judge Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, Senator Diane Feinstein had some egregiously sharp words for

[ad_1] Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett speaks during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, October 12, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/Pool via Reuters) Yesterday, Senator Chris Coons asked Judge Barrett about Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 Supreme Court decision holding that the Constitution protects a right to “marital privacy” that encompasses the use of

[ad_1] Judge Amy Coney Barrett attends the third day of her Senate confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, October 14, 2020. (Michael Reynolds/Pool via Reuters) Judge Amy Barrett remains on track to confirmation to the Supreme Court at this writing. While Democrats have often tried to sink Republican nominees to the Court after their hearings have

[ad_1] Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) listens next to Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) during the third day of Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett in Washington, D.C., October 14, (Jonathan Ernst/Pool/Reuters) Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) on Thursday, the final day of confirmation hearings for

[ad_1] FCC chairman Ajit Pai testifies during an oversight hearing held by the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee in Washington, D.C., June 24, 2020. (Alex Wong/Pool via Reuters) Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday he will move to “clarify the meaning” of Section 230, the law which protects social media companies

[ad_1] Senator Kelly Loeffler speaks at a news conference in Dallas, Georgia, October 15, 2020. (Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters) It’s just my luck that on the very day that I publish an article entitled “The GOP Is Not Destined to Be Dominated by Cranks,” an incumbent Republican senator is celebrating an endorsement from the execrable Marjorie Tayor

[ad_1] Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden gives a thumbs up when asked about how Kamala Harris will do in the vice-presidential debate as he arrives to record campaign messages in Wilmington, Del., October 7, 2020. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) In today’s Morning Jolt, I note that one reason Twitter, Facebook, and a lot of blue-checkmark journalistic elites

[ad_1] People line up for taxis across the street from the New York Times headquarters in 2013. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters) In the New York Times, Emily Bazelon reminds us once again that an enormous number of journalists, law professors, and other academics simply cannot be trusted to defend the First Amendment — and, in fact, that

[ad_1] Whether it’s a re-elected Donald Trump or a newly elected Joe Biden, the person who takes the presidential oath of office next year will face some extraordinary governing challenges. Of course, our president doesn’t govern alone. Indeed, the Constitution puts Congress in the driver’s seat in key respects. But over many decades, we have

[ad_1] Then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter attend an NCAA basketball game in Washington, D.C., in 2010. (File photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) A corrupt Ukraine firm reportedly got direct access to then-vice president Joe Biden through his son. According to a 2015 email, then–vice president Joe Biden met with a top executive at Burisma,

[ad_1] President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and their son Barron walk to the White House from Marine One in Washington, D.C., August 16, 2020. (Erin Scott/Reuters) First lady Melania Trump said Wednesday that her 14-year-old son Barron Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus shortly after she and President Trump were diagnosed, though

[ad_1] President Trump concludes a campaign rally in Johnstown, Penn., October 13, 2020. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Biden’s purported lead is a lot shakier than his media allies will admit. The American Federation of Trump-Haters and Never-Trumpers have arrived again at their quadrennial promised land: Trump is finished, a wounded monster lurching about, baited by his innumerable enemies,

[ad_1] Judge Amy Coney Barrett testifies during her confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., October 14, 2020. (Michael Reynolds/Reuters) Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett accused Senator Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) of “pushing me to violate the judicial code of ethics” during her third day of confirmation hearings on Wednesday after the senator

[ad_1] (Dado Ruvic/Reuters) Twitter said Thursday that it censored a New York Post article based on emails between Hunter Biden and a Burisma executive in accordance with its “hacked materials policy.” “In line with our Hacked Materials Policy, as well as our approach to blocking URLs, we are taking action to block any links to

[ad_1] NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE T he Amy Coney Barrett hearings have been the kind of goat rodeo that gives goat rodeos a bad name. Some lowlights: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) came out as a full-blown conspiracy kook, briefly converting the chamber into a “room full of crazy” (“Beautiful Mind conspiracy charts,” Senate Ben Sasse

[ad_1] Back to the recusal issue, which has come up again in questioning of Judge Barrett by Senator Klobuchar (D., Minn.) and will probably be raised again by Senator Harris (D., Calif.). I argued yesterday that judges should never recuse themselves before a concrete case comes before them; only in an actual case or controversy

[ad_1] New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo takes part in a regional cannabis and vaping summit in New York City, New York, U.S., October 17, 2019. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson) New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday singled out the “religious practices” of Orthodox Jews as the cause of renewed spread of the coronavirus in New York

[ad_1] Democratic nominee Joe Biden participates in the first 2020 presidential campaign debate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, September 29, 2020. (Morry Gash/Pool via Reuters) The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is looking into emails that show Hunter Biden introduced his father, former Vice President Joe Biden, to a Ukrainian

[ad_1] Several Democratic senators have brought up Judge Barrett’s criticism of Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion in the 2012 Obamacare case, citing it as evidence of her alleged eagerness to strike down that law. The issue in the current Obamacare case is different from the one that was before the Court back then, as Barrett has

[ad_1] Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett speaks during the second day of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., October 13, 2020. (Susan Walsh/Reuters) To get a sense of how well Amy Coney Barrett did on the first day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, you

[ad_1] A bust of Plato in the Long Room of the old library that houses 200,000 of Trinity College’s oldest books in Dublin, Ireland, September 14, 2018. (Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters) Among the “woke” it is an article of faith that Western Civilization has been an unalloyed bad for the world and must always be condemned. You’d

[ad_1] (rarrarorro/Getty Images) Earlier this year, the federal government worked across party lines to pass a historic economic-relief bill. By most measures, it worked: Concerns about a wave of bankruptcies and permanently high unemployment have more or less receded. Despite the lockdowns, personal incomes soared in the second quarter, cushioning household finances and avoiding a

[ad_1] NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE I n my last piece, I alluded to an article by Hunter Derensis of The American Conservative, which makes the case that conservatives should look to John C. Calhoun, of all people, for political guidance. Though I didn’t have space to fully address it yesterday, I believe Derensis’s argument is historically

[ad_1] Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) at the confirmation hearing of Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Capitol Hill, October 12, 2020. (Greg Nash/Pool via Reuters) Senator Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) grilled Judge Amy Coney Barrett during Tuesday’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing over her pro-life stance and whether she would agree with the Court’s ruling in Roe

[ad_1] New York governor Andrew Cuomo speaks at the unveiling for the Mother Cabrini statue in New York, October 12, 2020. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters) New York governor Andrew Cuomo in his new memoir blames conservatives and right-wing media for the controversy over coronavirus outbreaks in the state’s nursing homes. Around 6,700 nursing home residents in New

[ad_1] Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) speaks Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., October 13, 2020. (Jim Lo Scalzo/Reuters) Rhode Island Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse was in full-bore conspiracy-theorist mode today, to the point where he did not even allow Amy Coney Barrett to answer a single question during

[ad_1] (Pixabay) The Netherlands is about to expand its euthanasia law to allow children ages 1–12 to be killed by doctors. (Children older than 12 already can be euthanized). From the NLTimes story: Terminally-ill children between the ages of 1 and 12 will likely be granted access to euthanasia, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge told

[ad_1] During his questioning of Amy Coney Barrett this morning, Senator Dick Durbin said repeatedly that different lawyers will come to difficult conclusions when examining the same text, and insisted that it is impossible for judges to be the same as “robots.” Amy Coney Barrett agreed. In and of itself, this was a relatively uncontroversial

[ad_1] Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to the media on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., September 30, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) announced on Tuesday that the Senate will debate a “targeted” economic relief legislation once lawmakers return from recess on October 19. Congress has approved over $4 trillion

[ad_1] During his questioning at this morning’s round of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham asked the judge how it feels to be nominated for the Supreme Court. Barrett’s reply was thoughtful and very humanizing. Here’s what she said: I’ve tried to be on a media blackout for the