Author: William H. Freivogel

14th Amendment: Legacy of Dred Scott and reservoir of individual rights

President Trump’s pre-election plan to reinterpret the 14th Amendment to eliminate birthright citizenship would weaken a part of the Constitution that has roots in St. Louis and that serves as the Constitution’s deepest reservoir of individual rights. That background, which didn’t get much attention in the media, is important to understanding the danger of Trump’s

From stories of hope to the massacre in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood

Opinion WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last Saturday, student journalists at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting told stories from around the globe about religious persecution, sex trafficking and the hopes and dreams of refugees and migrants hunting for a better life across an ocean, or gulf or invisible national border.  They were hopes sometimes realized in

The Press: Not at war, at work

A century ago, the First Amendment was taking its first, tentative breaths of life.  The protection of speech, protest, religion and the press had been in the Constitution for 120 years, but no one had won a First Amendment claim in the Supreme Court. It was a nasty time.  Americans exited World War I shell-shocked

Trump says he IS the law

Opinion During Watergate, President Richard M. Nixon claimed he didn’t have to turn over the White House tapes  because the constitutional separation of powers “precludes judicial review of a President’s claim of privilege.”  In other words, Nixon claimed the court couldn’t even consider whether he had to turn over the tapes. The Supreme Court disagreed. 

The fantastic fictions of an unfit president

Opinion Donald Trump is unfit for the office of president because he threatens core American values, ignores hard-won lessons of history and assaults the constitutional role the press and truth-telling play in our democracy. He delegitimizes the press by calling it fake and the “enemy of the people.”  He invents an alternative reality – Spygate