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It Just Got a Lot Harder for Americans to Have Their Day in Court

By rewriting the rules for civil complaints, the Supreme Court denied access to poor and middle-class people—and handed a big gift to corporate interests.

Arthur R. Miller

Parents Tried to Desegregate Their Schools. The Roberts Court Said No.

The conservative majority rewrote decades of equal protection law in the name of a fictional color-blind Constitution.

William Yeomans

Think Police Can’t Use Illegally Obtained Evidence Against You? Think Again.

Thanks to the Roberts Court, there’s no penalty for ignoring a key 4th Amendment protection.

Paul Butler

This Isn’t the Roberts Court—It’s the Kennedy Court

The Court’s results are mixed, not because of John Roberts’s leadership but because of Anthony Kennedy’s more balanced commitments.

David Cole

Is the Death Penalty Unconstitutional?

Following a controversial ruling over lethal injections, Justice Breyer suggested that capital punishment may violate the 8th Amendment. It’s time to bring that case to court.

George H. Kendall

John Roberts Dismantled the ‘Crown Jewel’ of the Civil-Rights Movement

The Supreme Court said that times have changed. So why were 180 restrictive voting laws passed after it gutted the Voting Rights Act?

Theodore M. Shaw

Unions in Jeopardy

For decades the Supreme Court supported rules to protect collective bargaining. That era is over.

Lily Eskelsen García

The Death of the Class-Action Lawsuit?

Class actions were the weapon of the people—until the Roberts Court made it nearly impossible to file one.

Herman Schwartz

The Many Sins of ‘Citizens United’

In order to get the ruling they wanted, the conservative justices had to ignore an extensive record on political corruption.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

The Case Against the Roberts Court

In the decade since John Roberts was appointed chief justice, the Supreme Court has favored the powerful at the expense of everyone else.

Nan Aron and Kyle C. Barry

The Second Amendment Was Never Meant to Protect an Individual’s Right to a Gun

How the Supreme Court upended the well-established meaning of the Second Amendment.

Dorothy Samuels

How ‘Hobby Lobby’ Launched a Right-Wing Crusade

The 2014 ruling has enabled corporations and Christian zealots to claim “religious liberty” as an excuse to deny women’s rights and skirt the law.

Dahlia Lithwick

Hairs to the Throne

Victor Juhasz

Hear! Hear! George Scialabba

A gathering of luminaries and friends—including artist Joseph Ciardiello, with this drawing—celebrated the essayist and critic on the day of his retirement.

Rick Perlstein

The Promise of Jeremy Corbyn’s Victory

He’s attracted more than 60,000 new members to the Labour Party, idealists inspired by a candidate offering more than cosmetic change.

D.D. Guttenplan

Union Busting Was a Bust for Scott Walker’s Presidential Run

The failed candidate’s core message did not resonate, and he had nothing else to offer.

John Nichols

AIPAC Spent Millions of Dollars to Defeat the Iran Deal. Instead, It May Have Destroyed Itself.

The powerful Israel lobby has been badly damaged, and that’s good news for both Palestinians and Israelis.

M.J. Rosenberg

Walker’s Poll Numbers Fall Below the Lowest Number

Calvin Trillin

Illegal Abortion Is Dangerous, Birth Control Works, and Other Inconvenient Truths for Pro-Lifers

Ross Douthat thinks abortion could be criminalized without sacrificing women’s equality or well-being. He’s sorely mistaken.

Katha Pollitt

Romancing the Remains

A tubercular Surrealist describes his convalescence. What could go right?

Ricky D’Ambrose

The Politics of Bad Art

In whose service does a painter paint, or a critic criticize?

Barry Schwabsky

Conditions of Emergence: On Elena Ferrante

In the pseudonymous author’s Neapolitan Novels, the price of leaving Naples is that you can never be at home again.

William Deresiewicz

Letters From the October 12, 2015, Issue

Our Readers

Puzzle No. 3374

Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto