A sortition approach to Supreme Court selection could revitalize the Constitution’s separation of powers.
James Wallner
Much can be learned from the similarities and differences between Isaiah Berlin and Hannah Arendt.
In the debate over Sarah Bloom Raskin's Federal Reserve nomination, some senators are undermining their own institution's constitutional authority.
Liz Cheney created a situation where her congressional colleagues were either with her—and the Constitution—or against them both.
Looking beyond electoral advantage and narrow policy questions suggests that people make progress when they face the future while looking to the past.
Underpinning current arguments against the filibuster is the implicit desire to do away with politics inside the Senate altogether.
To treat our present political dysfunction, we must revive politics, which means we must rescue the public realm from obscurity.
While technology can help facilitate action, self-government requires dedication to an ongoing activity in which Americans make decisions together.
Regardless of who wins in politics, the national debt grows, and America, it seems, has entered a new age of debt.
If conservatives really want to make America great again, they should start by thinking about what it was that made America great in the past.
Ideology plays a role in House leadership contests, but it is only one of many factors.
To sustain the idea of political equality, we must understand American exceptionalism not in abstract terms but rather as something we practice.
Joanne Freeman has written a brilliant book, but she misses something crucial: a collapse of political space, not acts of violence, caused the Civil War.
Senatorial independence is the highest value, said the Founders—more important than the particular interests of the states from which U.S. senators come.
Instead of returning to the Capitol Hill after the people vote, members should complete their work before the election.
Abandoning politics permanently in the face of conflict precludes us from using persuasion, negotiation, and compromise to resolve our disagreements.
Today the past is more often treated as a cautionary tale instead of a guide, and in a republic, this is a dangerous mistake.
The Senate is free to process judicial nominations however its members so choose, and mental gymnastics are not required.
Senators should remember that the purpose of the confirmation process is not to confirm the president's nominee: it is to protect the judiciary.
Congress has lost sight of its role as a body to deliberate and work out conflicts: in essence, they disdain politics.
Instead of a deliberative process in which Senate members put forward competing ideas, party leaders stage-manage a rigged debate.
Changing procedure won't fix our budget woes: Congress has to make hard choices.
The decline in legislative deliberation inside the Senate in recent years is a direct consequence of the shift from a proportional view to a majoritarian view.
Prevalent among political actors of all stripes today is a worrisome tendency to dismiss the Constitution’s constraints when those constraints run counter to a desired outcome.
James Wallner is a Senior Fellow at the R Street Institute.