Law

Civil Rights Are Yesterday

It’s Time For a New Approach To Social Justice

When I was a child growing up in the 1970s, I learned to revere Martin Luther King Jr. and the power of civil rights. Many of us felt that a society that respected the civil rights of all Americans would inevitably become more just and equal. Racial divisions, irrational prejudice, and social injustice would quickly yield to the blind justice of the law.

It didn’t work out that way. Not only did civil rights laws prove unable to redress many racial inequalities, the laws often got twisted in ways that King …

by Richard Thompson Ford |

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Land of the Violent, Home of the Chaste

The Supreme Court Maintains the Puritanical Ban On Sexual Expression

by Thaddeus Russell |

Last week’s Supreme Court decision striking down California’s ban on selling violent video games to kids is no victory for free speech. In fact, the majority decision, authored by Justice …

The Conscience of Loyola

Bob Benson Fought for Equality -- And Discovered Frank Gehry

by Miriam Pawel |

Bob Benson was a California original, and it seemed only fitting that his memorial service featured Frank Gehry in one row and a dozen cafeteria workers in the next. Loyola …

Why Lying Matters

From Martha to Madoff, Perjurers Harm America

Perjury, journalist James B. Stewart likes to remind people, used to be punishable by having one’s tongue cut out or hanging by one’s ears in the pillory.

These days, perjury in …

We’re All Birthers Now

Our National Identity Crisis About Personal Identity

by Joe Mathews |

President Obama’s release of his birth certificate, to answer unfounded suspicions about his place of birth, was widely described as an extraordinary act. It wasn’t. Unreasonable demands for birth records …


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