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Government by Emergency: Are Two Generations of Crisis Enough?

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shutterstock.com
The oldest emergency proclamation dates to the Carter Administration, 40 years ago. Two generations of crisis are enough.

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The President’s Emergency Declaration Is the Congressional Check on Presidential Power

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President Donald Trump at a press conference in New York, New York on September 26, 2018 (Evan El-Amin/Shutterstock.com).
President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency is the check on executive prerogative, not the exercise of it.

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James Madison Won the Shutdown

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U.S. Capitol (Tono Balaguer/Shutterstock.com)
Partisan disputes come and go, but the encouraging development was institutional: the House of Representatives stared down the presidency and won.

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The Emergency Is Outcome-Based Constitutionalism

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A government with distributed authority has restrictions on its powers.

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Congress Has Forgotten How to Fight

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"Argument of the Chivalry," a depiction of Preston Brooks caning Charles Sumner. Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
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.

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Lame Ducks and Congressional Accountability

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The U.S. Capital at night (Anujak Jaimook / Shutterstock.com)
Instead of returning to the Capitol Hill after the people vote, members should complete their work before the election.

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What Ben Sasse Got Right and Wrong at the Kavanaugh Hearings

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Senators Amy Klobachar (D-M.N.) and Ben Sasse (R-N.E.) speak during the confirmation hearing of Judge Brett Kavanaugh before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, September 4, 2018 (Credit: Alex Edelman / ZUMA Wire / Alamy Live News).
It is a good thing a U.S. Senator raised the delegation issue in a high-visibility venue, but it should have a hearing of its own.

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An Impotent Congress

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Capitol Hill, Washington DC
Instead of a deliberative process in which Senate members put forward competing ideas, party leaders stage-manage a rigged debate.

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Cultivating Virtuous Citizenship?: A Law and Liberty Symposium on American National Character

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Cheryl Casey/Adobe Stock Images
Politics requires fit characters, but can virtue be restored as a basis for liberty? Four contributors address this problem.

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Self-Government Cannot Live while Congress is Moribund

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U.S. Capitol (zimmytws/shutterstock.com)
Until Congress restores itself to its proper place as a body worth of a free people, it will never rein in executive and judicial abuse.

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