When the great-grandmothers of today’s young women were born, women couldn’t vote. They were expected to be mothers and homemakers. When the grandmothers of today’s young women were born, women had no legal protections against discrimination in education, jobs or credit. The Supreme Court said “Equal Protection” in the 14th Amendment didn’t include women. When the mothers … [Read more...] about ‘Remember the Ladies’
Bill of Rights – Well-heeled win today’s First Amendment disputes
Today’s conservative Roberts Court is a bastion of First Amendment freedom as was the liberal Warren Court half a century ago. But the winners are different. Establishment insiders win today whereas outsiders won most often during the Warren years. On its 200th birthday in 1991, the First Amendment had developed into a powerful shield against government abuse of outsiders, … [Read more...] about Bill of Rights – Well-heeled win today’s First Amendment disputes
Bill of Rights makes us freest nation
The Bill of Rights has helped create what is arguably the freest enduring society in history. It wasn’t always that way. The original Constitution didn’t have a Bill of Rights. Once the Bill of Rights was added, it didn’t apply for a century to state governments. As recently as 90 years ago, no one had won a First Amendment free speech case against the … [Read more...] about Bill of Rights makes us freest nation
Is there a right to privacy in the Constitution?
The most important words in the 14th Amendment of 1868 – maybe in the entire Constitution – say no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny any person…the equal protection of the laws.” These promises of liberty, due process and equality eventually remade the country, remade the Constitution and by the 1960s, … [Read more...] about Is there a right to privacy in the Constitution?
Originalism vs. a living Constitution
Is the Constitution dead or alive? The late Justice Antonin Scalia, long the chief advocate of originalism on the Supreme Court, was unequivocal. “The constitution that I interpret is not living but dead,” he said in a 2008 speech. His counterpart, the late Justice William J. Brennan Jr., intellectual leader of the Warren Court, was equally insistent it was a … [Read more...] about Originalism vs. a living Constitution