A system of constitutional checks and balances has never won a popularity contest among figures on both the Right and the Left who seek to use the state as an instrument for the salvation of society. This idea, however, is not new; it has ancient roots in the writings of Polybius and found modern expression in Montesquieu’s defense of checks...

　　If Zohran Mamdani intended to come across as an Ayn Rand villain when he pledged to “replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism,” he succeeded. Unfortunately, socialism continues to appeal to young people on the left, as both parties jettison free market principles. 　　If there is one author who has inspired young people to think differently...

　　Being chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, which includes being its chief executive, is one of the very top jobs not only in the country, but in the world. In the US, the Fed is the central bank, money printer, inflation-creator, and emergency lender to the world’s most important economy and financial markets; it is also all of those to...

　　Editor’s Note: The following essay was previously published in The Washington Post on May 11, 2026. 　　For years, I kept a favorite cartoon in my desk and pulled it out to open the annual business-plan meeting at the unit I led. It showed a frazzled executive standing in front of a screen displaying his multiyear sales projections. The line ran straight horizontally,...

　　The great sinologist and literary essayist, Simon Leys, once wrote that he was induced to buy G. K. Chesterton’s 1904 novel, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, as soon as he read its first words: The human race to which so many of my readers belong. 　　After so brilliant a start, the rest of the book came to him as something...

　　The mid-twentieth-century generation experienced the boom of journalism as an effective “fourth estate” and guarantor of freedoms. Contemporary generations are witnessing its death. The fourth estate, a term which Edmund Burke allegedly coined, quickly became an essential pillar of modern democracies: information is what allows individuals to fully exercise their rights and defend themselves against the overwhelming power of the...

　　Artificial intelligence is improving both quickly and in ways that increasingly matter for legal practice and legal education. One of the most important developments has been the rise of reasoning models to supplement large language models (LLMs). Earlier, LLMs were best understood as systems for fast, fluent text generation. But newer reasoning models are designed to spend more time on...

　　This year marks the centennial of zoning in the United States, when the Supreme Court upheld comprehensive municipal land-use restrictions over the claims of property owners. The decision, Euclid v. Ambler Realty, was a milestone in the progressives’ campaign to overcome constitutional impediments to their plans for social engineering. In the ensuing century, zoning fundamentally altered the geography of American...

　　Crisp against the gloaming, a bugle sounds a rising then falling strain. 　　It’s 5 pm. It’s cold. Yet in the nation’s capital, something embers. While DC’s iPhone-occupied evening toilers and travelers scurry about to their next diversion, the lone uniformed Doughboy standing at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue signals a time-honored but incongruous musical thought of reflection for day’s ending. 　　My feet...

　　On May 7, elections were held in England, Scotland, and Wales. These were for some of the local council spots in England as well as for electing the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales.  　　Thanks in part to its lack of a written constitution, there is no formal, or judicially-overseen, model of federalism in the UK. Parliamentary sovereignty lies at...

　　Is there an essential identity, “Americanness,” to which society might demand conformity, or is the essence of Americanness really the rejection of all such demands? For decades, the mainstream view has tended towards the latter as the answer. 　　Now, though, this mainstream view is being challenged. Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas are each currently litigating laws that require the Ten Commandments...

　　“An Empire is an aggregate of many states,” Edmund Burke informed the British House of Commons on March 22, 1775. On that day, Burke pleaded for conciliation with America. He beseeched supporters of Lord North’s government to think “more in favor of prudent management, than of force” in the quest to keep America for King George III. Having ignored Burke’s...