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
Freedom
News Analysis: Liberty, privacy and women’s equality at stake in abortion decision
The constitutional promise that the U.S. Supreme Court is about to reinterpret and restrict in its abortion decision is the deepest well of individual freedom, autonomy and privacy in the Constitution. It doesn’t just protect women. It protects everyone. For that reason, the leaked draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito raises questions about whether that well of freedom - … [Read more...] about News Analysis: Liberty, privacy and women’s equality at stake in abortion decision
Covering religious freedom
It amazes me that a country founded on religious freedom has such a hard time embracing that freedom. But how else do you explain the controversy over the New York World Trade Center mosque? A cultural center that contains a mosque, planned to be built two blocks away from ground zero, has drawn such heated rhetoric from both the right and the left that the construction no … [Read more...] about Covering religious freedom