Julian Castro speaks at the first Democratic presidential debate in Miami, Fla., June 26, 2019. (Mike Segar/Reuters) Julian Castro, who served as secretary of housing and urban development under President Obama, offered a vigorous defense of abortion rights for transgender Americans during the first Democratic primary debate on Wednesday night. Asked if his health-care platform

United States Chief Justice John G. Roberts (Jim Young/Reuters) He mostly saved a doctrine that shields executive agencies from judicial review. While there are many cultural and political causes for the growth of the federal administrative leviathan, it could not have become so powerful without considerable assistance from the Supreme Court. The Court has created,

Today marks the 69th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus commented, “The Korean War anniversary is a reminder of allied troops’ selfless bravery and U.S. and ROK resolve to defend liberty against aggression in the past and future.” North Korea’s invasion of South Korea in 1950 and

Slave shackles on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., in 2016. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) The animating sentiment behind reparations should not be dismissed out of hand, but implementing them would only exacerbate racial tension. With America’s contentious racial history serving as subtext for the 2020 presidential campaign, it

So many people want to be president. Unfortunately, many have terrible ideas. Sen. Kamala Harris wants companies to prove they pay men and women equally. “Penalties if they don’t!” she shouts. But there are lots of reasons, other than sexism, why companies pay some men more than women. Harris also wants government to “hold social

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at the Presidential Candidate Forum in Miami, Fla., June 21, 2019. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters) Bernie Sanders, the Brooklyn socialist who represents Vermont in the Senate and is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, is ready to show those Wall Street meanies a thing or two: He’s going to write them a check for

Eduardo, a three-year-old boy from Honduras, looks at his father after migrants illegally crossed into the U.S. from Mexico in Penitas, Texas, November 7, 2018. (Adrees Latif/Reuters) The U.S. is lousy at excluding illegal immigrants — and at treating them humanely once they’re here. If this is the way President Trump treats his prisoners, he

PITTSBURGH — Richard Trumka needed to come home. Walking into the union hall at the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers building along the Monongahela River, the AFL-CIO president shed the twisted expression on his face as he shook hands with his rank-and-file organizers. With the older union hands, there were no handshakes but instead familiar hugs.

Migrants from Central America cross the Rio Bravo river to enter illegally into the United States at El Paso, Texas, June 11, 2019. (Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters) This is a similar border crisis to the one Obama faced in his second term, with similar challenges. News flash: There’s a crisis at the border.   This was

In order to make arguments for nationalism, we have to define it. The first definition in Merriam-Webster is “loyalty and devotion to a nation.” But in a second paragraph, it adds, “especially: a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as

John Irving in 2002 (Michael Kooren/Reuters) The novelist has put up a lot of easy targets in his New York Times op-ed. I am going to take aim at six of his points, starting with his strongest one. First: Irving asserts that abortion was legal in our country from Puritan times until the 1840s, at

When Joe Biden made his recent comments regarding working with segregationist Democrats decades ago, the backlash from his 2020 rivals was expected. As the current frontrunner by a wide margin, his primary opponents are desperately hoping to find something that will knock him down and give them a chance to emerge from their single-digit polling.

(Pixabay) The city’s education chief elevates racial politics over serving students. Earlier this month, the New York Post obtained a copy of a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio signed by a bipartisan group of seven New York City councilmembers and two state-assembly members, accusing Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza of antagonizing students and parents who

(File photo: Jonathan Drake/Reuters) A new law strengthening First Amendment protections at state universities is among the first to tackle this growing problem. This Wednesday, June 26, the South Dakota Board of Regents will meet to discuss the implementation of one of the nation’s more forceful efforts to protect intellectual diversity and free inquiry on

President Franklin Roosevelt delivers a fireside chat from the White House, 1933 (National Archives) I am second to none in my admiration for William F. Buckley Jr., but on matters of electoral politics his judgment was not exactly infallible. For example, he floated the idea of having former president Dwight Eisenhower join Barry Goldwater’s ticket

When Vice President Mike Pence was the governor of Indiana, he got along well with the mayor of South Bend, Pete Buttigieg, despite the fact that Buttigieg is a gay, liberal Democrat and Pence is a straight, socially conservative Republican. Ironically, Pence is a straight man in both the sexual-orientation … Read More

During the presidency of George W. Bush, conservatism as a political ideology became equated with military adventurism. This was mostly due to the Iraq War – a largely unnecessary war, that was started by neoconservatives and establishment types who thought they could ‘export’ democracy and human rights. The war in Iraq was so unpopular, that

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Maxim Shipenkov/Pool via Reuters) Growing public disaffection and deepening rifts in the Turkish president’s coalition present an existential threat to his 16-year rule. Tomorrow, for the second time this year, residents of Istanbul will go to the polls to determine who will be the city’s mayor. Some observers see the

Senator Josh Hawley (R, Mo.) on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., January 3, 2019 (Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters) A discussion of Hawley’s bill, Trump’s rally, and much more. This is the transcript from Episode 152 of The Editors. Rich: The Trump reelect launch, and his endless George Stephanopoulos interview. Wait a minute. Sarah, did you hear

The left went into a predictable hissy this week after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell comments about his opposition to reparations for slavery. “We tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a Civil War, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We’ve elected an African American president. I think we’re always a

(Jonathan Drake/Reuters) Thanks to their social-justice warrior mindset, the leaders of Oberlin College have caused an Ohio jury to hit it with $44 million in compensatory and punitive damages in a case where the school couldn’t resist the urge to side with its “woke” students against a local business. College leaders should learn from this

A United Airlines Boeing 737-900ER takes off from Los Angeles International airport, March 28, 2018. (File photo: Mike Blake/Reuters) The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday ordered U.S. airlines not to fly in Iranian airspace as tensions between the two countries continue to rise. Escalating Iranian military activities in the region “present an inadvertent risk to U.S.

President Donald Trump is clearly on the right track on climate change. One of the strongest indicators of this is the mainstream media’s intense attacks on the president over the past month. After all, they would not be concerned if Trump were not attacking their most cherished, and vulnerable, asset—the supposedly “settled science” propping up

If there is one thing you learn about at Oberlin College, the notoriously progressive liberal-arts college, it is surely privilege: white privilege, hetero privilege, gender privilege, you name it.  Now, an Ohio jury has identified an entirely new variety, woke privilege, and resolved to hold people who … Read More

Establishment-clause jurisprudence is famously a mess. One path for cleaning it up is suggested by Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinion today in American Legion vs. American Humanist Association, the Bladensburg Cross case, which notes the strong originalist case that the clause should never have been incorporated against the states. Another course was suggested by Michael McConnell

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may seem harmless, but she’s a virtue signaler on steroids and a nonstop headline-manufacturing machine. The left adores her, and for conservatives she’s a gift that keeps on giving –because she is either too naive or arrogant to rein herself in. Don’t listen to those who advise not to be roped into

A young Brexit supporter carries a British flag in central London, England, December 9, 2018. (Dylan Martinez/Reuters) A ridiculously slanted poll produces a ridiculously reported result. The English language used to produce a great catalogue of words for nonsense. Some of them communicating earthy disgust: rubbish, baloney, and bull***t. Some of them communicate something like

An irritable red ant suspended in amber (Roman Genn) Until recently, they had eschewed the S-word, but now they embrace it The unfinished business of the Democratic party is socialism. Don’t take my word for it — consult Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders gave a madcap speech in which he ridiculed past conservative critics, beginning with

This past Monday, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative began a planned hearing on an additional $300 billion tariffs on Chinese imports. It appears that the outcome of President Trump’s meeting with President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit next week will largely determine whether these tariffs are imposed. The debate surrounding the impact

(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) A venerable exception to double-jeopardy protection lives on. It was the night of November 5, 1990, in a second-floor conference room at the Marriott East Side Hotel in midtown Manhattan. That is when Sayyid Nosair murdered Meir Kahane. The Brooklyn-born founder of the Jewish Defense League, Rabbi Kahane was a controversial Israeli politician: