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,...

　　It would be an understatement to say that people across the world from all backgrounds and political persuasions are nervous about what artificial intelligence (AI) might mean for the future. The extent to which AI is on people’s minds can be gauged by the immense interest shown by believers and non-believers alike in a document published in May this year...

　　In 1509, while traveling from Italy to England, the famed Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus composed one of the strangest and most enduring works of the Renaissance. In Praise of Folly (Moriae Encomium) was written partly for amusement, perhaps out of a self-deprecating boredom to break up the neurasthenia that was synonymous with long-distance travel in the early sixteenth century. As...

　　The Iran war is the theater for the most expansive use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms to date. Some have even called it the “AI War.” Of the five leading AI programs employed in the war, two take their names from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The most important of those platforms is Palantír, which raises the...

　　In May 2019, a man robbed a credit union in Virginia, made off with $195,000, and vanished. Witnesses noticed only one odd detail: as he approached the bank, he appeared to be talking on his cell phone. Weeks later, with the trail cold, police tried something unimaginable a generation ago. They asked a magistrate for a geofence warrant—an order compelling...

　　Every generation experiences the same fear: technology is going to permanently displace workers. The spinning jenny was supposed to idle England’s textile workers. The steam engine would hollow out the trades. Electricity would render physical labor unnecessary. The computer and the Internet would finish the job of ending work. Now, artificial intelligence models have assumed the role of civilization-ending technology,...