As someone who has long profited from and appreciated Roger Pilon’s work, I must admit that I am gratified to see him reckon with my work—however critically—in his recent essay, “On the Importance of First Principles.” I think the root of our disagreement is not that Pilon has first principles and I do not, needless to say, but that we...

　　Growing up, I had a fascination with books about courtroom dramas: Louis Nizer’s My Life in Court, F. Lee Bailey’s The Defense Never Rests, Irving Stone’s Clarence Darrow for the Defense, and similar fare. I admired these legal gladiators in the same fashion as I did my youthful comic book heroes. They seemed to be larger-than-life, righteous, and standing for...

　　On July 14, the House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act by a vote of 308 to 117. The bill would impose Daylight Saving Time year-round, nationwide, and President Donald Trump has promised to sign it. It now sits in the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune has voiced misgivings about a federal mandate, and Senator Tom Cotton has...

　　Brexit was one of the defining political events of the early twenty-first century. Ten years ago, the world was shaken by the images of Prime Minister David Cameron announcing his resignation after losing the Brexit referendum. The vote transformed Britain’s relationship with Europe and offered a powerful lesson about the unpredictability of referendums in the age of social media and...

　　There’s a lot of love for California in the neighborhood where I live. My wife and I see it every time we go for walks. Our neighbors wear Dodgers hats and 49ers jerseys. Open garages reveal the California flag hanging on the back wall. Cars sport decals declaring “I ❤️ San Francisco” and other favorite cities.Tupac’s “California Love” could be...

　　A Constitution that divides power among three branches and between the federal government and the states needs an umpire. Politicians, responding either to their own interest in expanding their authority or to public passions, will frequently overstep constitutional boundaries. 　　Through judicial review, the Supreme Court therefore serves as a neutral arbiter charged with maintaining the Constitution’s boundaries. But the Court...

　　Several years ago, California brothers Arron and Arthur Benedetti inherited 267 acres of farmland from their father, a turkey farmer who spent his life working that land. They were not asking for a subsidy, tax break, or any government benefit. They simply wanted to build a home on property they had lawfully inherited. The government of Marin County, however, took...

　　Alexander Dugin (1962– ) is that rare bird, a philosopher who becomes a media personality. Perhaps the last was Rûhullah Khomeini, the Grand Ayatollah. An influence on Dugin, Khomeini—who appeared on the cover of Time Magazine six times—thought Plato one of the “great leading figures of divine wisdom.” Comparably, Dugin thinks “all Christian dogma is based on Plato. … In...

　　With the exception of the Caesars, no ancient Roman political figure is as famous as Marcus Tullius Cicero. Like the Caesars, the myth of Cicero has taken on a life of its own: the philosopher-statesman who, until his final breath, withstood the forces of totalitarianism in defense of the republic. Certainly, there is a great deal of truth to this...

　　Now seems to be an especially precarious time for American colleges and universities. In recent months, American institutions of higher learning have been confronted with near-constant disruptions that threaten both their short-term operations and long-term stability. From Congress’s passage of a new endowment tax to the White House’s revocation of millions in research funding, the Department of Justice’s announcement of...

　　In his abstruse “Substantive Due Process Is Still Antidemocratic,” the Manhattan Institute’s Tal Fortgang critiques a California Law Review essay from two Yale Law denizens, Douglas NeJaime and Reva Siegel, who recently mounted, as Fortgang puts it, “an ambitious defense of the modern ‘substantive due process’ cases—Griswold, Roe, Lawrence, Obergefell—against the charge that they are antidemocratic in the manner ofLochner.”...

　　Pope Leo XIVs first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, was published just over a month ago to mixed reactions. Some found the pontiffs views admirably measured and wise, acknowledging the potential good that can come from new technology while issuing salient warnings about the potential for ideolatry and dehumanization. Others were concerned that the encyclical misrepresented the state of the world today,...