In a unanimous decision in April, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit gave new life to a hard-fought effort by residents of St. James Parish in Louisiana to seek a moratorium on new petrochemical plant construction and expansion. This reversal of a lower court’s dismissal in 2024 marks a promising moment in [...]
In a landmark moment for South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate decades-long allegations that successive post-apartheid governments obstructed the prosecution of apartheid-era crimes. This move, prompted by a civil suit filed by survivors and relatives of apartheid victims, marks an inflection point in the country’s democratic journey. [...]
The first day of June marks the centennial of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, a landmark civil liberties decision in which the US Supreme Court struck down an amendment to the Oregon constitution mandating compulsory public education for all children between the ages of 8 and 16 who had not yet completed the eighth grade. [...]
President Trump said during an Oval Office meeting April 14 that it would be up to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele to decide whether mistakenly deported man Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia would be allowed back to the United States. President Bukele responded by stating that he did not “have the power to return him” and [...]
Rising authoritarianism, armed conflicts, and technological upheaval are eroding the foundations of international law. One state, with no army, no economic might, and physically smaller than many college campuses, continues to exert global influence through the quiet power of moral authority and legal advocacy. The Vatican, long underestimated as a relic of medieval diplomacy, arguably [...]
Introduction The proliferation of AI chatbots, especially those exhibiting discriminatory bias, hate speech, and the unauthorized use of public data, has raised significant ethical and legal concerns. A prominent example of these issues is the GPT-4chan bot, trained on data scraped from 4chan’s politically incorrect board (pol). Known for its chaotic nature and minimal moderation, [...]
Medicaid, the public health insurance program that covers more than 80 million low-income people in the US, is once again on the chopping block. A federal budget proposal currently under consideration aims to slash $1.5 trillion in spending over the next decade, with Medicaid among the programs targeted for restructuring. Any significant reduction in Medicaid [...]
A dangerous trend, all too familiar on American campuses, is seeping into European universities: the tendency for moral certainty to curdle into censorship, and for political fashion to harden into institutional policy. In the US, we’ve witnessed how campus politics can devolve into purity tests, where disagreement leads to disqualification, and where entire groups—often Jewish [...]
“The world no longer has a choice between force and law; if civilization is to survive, it must choose the rule of law.”—Paul Krugman Introduction The Council of Europe’s establishment of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine represents a significant development in the international justice landscape. As nations grapple with the [...]
“Credo quia absurdum”—”I believe because it is absurd.”—Tertullian, early Christian theologian It’s conspicuous. Despite impressive technological advances, the United States remains a proud bastion of anti-reason. Though approval numbers trend downward, President Donald J. Trump remains widely-admired for “courage,” “caring” and “common sense.” In some quarters, Trump is seriously considered a divine rescuer, a deliverer [...]
