Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell testifies on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., September 24, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Reuters) The Fed’s new monetary framework is long overdue, but the central bank may prove incapable of hitting its inflation target. The Federal Reserve wants to go full steam ahead in keeping our economic recovery strong. The US central bank

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., February 4, 2020. (Erin Scott/Reuters) Here’s what Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the judiciary committee, said about holding a hearing and a confirmation vote on a Supreme Court nominee last night, September, 26, 2020:  I will oppose the confirmation

Donald Trump speaks with President Barack Obama before being sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, Washington, D.C., January 20, 2017. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters) The New York Times’ big exposé on President Trump’s tax returns flags some things that may be dodgy but mainly it just confirms what everybody (including Trump) has always said

The president of the European Council does not usually make news when addressing the UN General Assembly. In fact, the current occupant of the post, Charles Michel might be used to giving UN addresses that attract minimal attention. He is, after all, a former prime minister of Belgium. However, today was … Read More

In this essay, Garrett Epps contends that Judge Amy Coney Barrett “may very well provide another vote for Thomas-style radicalism” on stare decisis—in other words, that she might be ready to overturn a precedent on the sole ground that she believes that it was wrongly decided. Epps badly misrepresents Barrett’s record and has no foundation

The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg has clarified what is at stake in the 2020 election. It is not, as some believe, democracy itself. Nor is it, as others assume, our continued existence as a nation. Democracy will survive Donald Trump, and the United States of America will outlast Joe Biden. The question that 2020

Judge Amy Coney Barrett speaks after being nominated to the Supreme Court by President Donald Trump, the White House, September 26, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters) It must have been quite disappointing for those who were expecting Amy Coney Barret to appear in a red habit and veil to take the oath of subservience to The Patriarchy,

(Pixabay) Unsurprisingly, but encouragingly, conservative legal scholars and organizations have come out swinging for Judge Barrett’s nomination. A few examples: Adam White, AEI legal scholar and contributor and podcaster at The Bulwark: “As a judge and a scholar, Amy Coney Barrett has dedicated her career to thoughtful study of interpreting laws and weighing precedents. She

(Scalia: Darren Ornitz/Reuters; Barrett: Carlos Barria/Reuters) When Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett spoke in the White House Rose Garden following her formal nomination on Saturday evening, she was everything she’s been made out to be: poised, smart, and kind-hearted. She began by honoring the life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “The flag of the

Daphne du Maurier’s brilliant novel Rebecca, first made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock (who ruined the ending), has inspired a remake. Netflix is set to release the movie on October 21, 2020. Even though I don’t expect to enjoy the film half as much as the book, it is a fantastic story, and —

In her Washington Post column, Ruth Marcus grossly misrepresents Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s academic writing on the principle of stare decisis (adherence to precedent). On constitutional questions, the Supreme Court has adopted what Barrett labels a “weak presumption of stare decisis”: Precedent can be overruled (stare decisis is not absolute), but it’s not enough that

(Kuzma/iStock/Getty Images Plus) 2006—At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Michael B. Wallace to the Fifth Circuit, Roberta Liebenberg, chair of the ABA’s judicial-evaluations committee, commits multiple acts of apparent flat-out perjury in defending her committee’s “not qualified” rating of Wallace—a rating that resulted from a scandalous process marked by bias, a

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden arrives to attend a morning service at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church in Greenville, Del., September 20, 2020. (Mark Makela/Reuters) Representative Jim Banks (R., Ind.) on Friday questioned why Democrats have not shown concern for a rash of anti-Catholic hate crimes that have plagued the U.S. in

(Getty) You knew they would try to pivot off the draconian COVID policies and use climate change as the pretext to deploy the same rigid controls over our lives. Now, perhaps a trial balloon is being floated for a “climate lockdown.” The noxious idea is that we are at (yet another) tipping point, and that

President Donald Trump speaks at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, Ga., September 25, 2020. (Tom Brenner/Reuters) A   group of states has brought a longshot lawsuit to invalidate Obamacare, and the Trump administration has largely supported their position. Democrats have seized the opportunity to charge that Republicans would eliminate legal protections for people with

Writing for a unanimous panel in Doe v. Purdue University, Judge Amy Coney Barrett ruled that John Doe, the pseudonym of a student suspended by Purdue University for supposedly having committed sexual violence, could pursue his claim that Purdue had discriminated against him “on the basis of sex” in violation of Title IX. Given the

As Ramesh Ponnuru noted on the Corner earlier this week, some media coverage of Judge Amy Coney Barrett — the leading candidate to replace late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — has zeroed in on Barrett’s purported membership in a mostly Catholic group called People of Praise. Ramesh’s post chronicles how one such story,

At the Democratic National Convention, presidential hopeful Joe Biden told the audience, “This is a life-changing election. This will determine what America is going to look like for a long, long time.” Based on the status of his beloved Delaware, we should all be wary. I’m a young Delawarean who didn’t … Read More

Sather Tower rises above the University of California at Berkeley. (Noah Berger/Reuters) The husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) admitted on Thursday to sending an inappropriate letter identified in a state audit that appeared to help an applicant to the University of California, Berkeley, get accepted to the school. The California State Auditor issued

A formation of the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron “Blue Angels” and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds fly over the National Mall in Washington, D.C., May 2, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) “The prospects of statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., have never been greater, but many significant obstacles loom,” The Hill declares. The Constitution declares,

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a news conference at the White House, September 23, 2020. (Tom Brenner/Reuters) The answer to the question, “Will your administration oversee a peaceful transfer of power after the impending election?” is, without exception, “Yes.” It would be better for the United States, and for this administration, if President

NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE A s I have argued, historical precedents support Senate Republicans in drawing a distinction in election-year Supreme Court nominations. When the president’s party controls the Senate, as it does in 2020, the Senate majority is well within its historic rights in confirming a nominee. It has done so 17 times out of

U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) In Politico, Massimo Faggioli says that if Judge Amy Barrett is nominated to the Supreme Court, senators ought to look into her religious beliefs and affiliations, even in ways that might seem intrusive. It is a thoroughly dishonest op-ed, and the dishonesty starts in the third

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) at a committee hearing to discuss the coronavirus pandemic in Washington, D.C., September 9, 2020. (Greg Nash/Reuters) Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) announced Wednesday that he would refer the Senate Homeland Security and Finance Committees’ report on its investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings to the Department of Justice for

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks at a Hispanic Heritage Month event in Kissimmee, Fla., September 15, 2020. (Leah Millis/Reuters) There is nothing wrong with having political preferences and intellectual priors. But sometimes they can lead you down some odd roads. In the New York Times today, Thomas Edsall quotes some observations made by Ian Haney

President Trump gets a lot of heat for his answers to questions. Much of the criticism is appropriate, some of it is mock outrage, but one way or the other, Trump does answer the questions. In fact, he answers hundreds more questions than his opponent. COVID has been devastating for the country, but it’s …

Antonin Scalia in 2010 (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) On February 15, 2016, Notre Dame law professor Amy Barrett talked on CBS about filling the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death two days previously. Because that interview is being misrepresented in various quarters, I’m going to go through what she said. The first relevant portion comes at

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) departs from a lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., September 10, 2020. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) Senator Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) said on Tuesday that she wouldn’t rule out voting to confirm President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court before election day. Murkowski initially opposed a vote before the elections, along

President Trump gets a lot of heat for his answers to questions. Much of the criticism is appropriate, some of it is mock outrage, but one way or the other, Trump does answer the questions. In fact, he answers hundreds more questions than his opponent. COVID has been devastating for the country, but it’s …

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during a U.N. Climate Change Conference in Madrid, Spain, December 10, 2019. (Susana Vera/Reuters) Former Secretary of State John Kerry falsely claimed in 2019 that he had no knowledge of Hunter Biden’s role on the board of Burisma Holdings, Inc., according to the Senate report on Biden’s