As distilled from an email update from Michael Waldman, President and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court struck down what remains of the Voting Rights Act. Soon, it will rule on the president’s birthright citizenship executive order, one that, as Waldman writes, “could upend what it means to be an American.” That is not...

What does leadership require when decisions send others into harm’s way, and uncertainty is shared not just by those in command, but by the nation itself? General Dwight D. Eisenhower once observed that “the supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity.” Not confidence. Not control. Integrity. And it is precisely that quality that is tested when clarity is hardest to...

I had just learned of the passing of a good friend and colleague, Colman McCarthy when the memories began to return. Before I ever met him, he had already lived a life that quietly defied the usual measures of success. For nearly three decades, from 1969 to 1997, he wrote columns for The Washington Post, covering politics, religion, health, sports,...

For nearly sixty years, the CBS News program 60 Minutes has stood as one of the few remaining institutions in American journalism recognized as serious, independent, and unafraid of difficult subjects. Its authority was never theatrical. It came from persistence, restraint, and the belief that citizens deserve to see uncomfortable facts and decide for themselves what they mean. That legacy...

“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.” — Abraham Lincoln, 1838 Voltaire once said, “Common sense is not so common.” Nearly three centuries later, that...

I recently read about a group of explorers who located a ship deep beneath the dark, cold waters off Antarctica: a vessel whose very name says a great deal about the man who once led her. Ernest Shackleton’s greatness didn’t come from a great feat. It came from the humility to set aside his own ambition the moment his men...

During his years in wartime London, U.S. Ambassador John Gilbert Winant absorbed the suffering around him. He was known for walking the streets during the Blitz, talking with ordinary people, sharing in their daily fears, helping to strengthen their resolve. Londoners remembered him for his compassion and accessibility. Historians consistently note how deeply he internalized the city’s suffering. He carried...

Moments of character often define a person—sometimes even a nation. I first came across Senator Ross’s story when reading President Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage. What I discovered was that political courage was as difficult then as it is today. Throughout our history, politicians have faced those defining moments when principle collides with pressure, when conscience demands both courage and character....

The measure of a public servant isn’t how tightly they hold onto power, but how faithfully they hold their integrity when the pressure to bend is greatest. Few can withstand the pressure; fewer still have the character and courage to act. In October 1973, amid the growing Watergate scandal, Attorney General Elliot Richardson faced a test that would ultimately define...

In every generation, there are a few public servants who stand as reminders of what political courage truly means. George W. Norris, the five-term Republican U.S. Senator from Nebraska, was one of them—a man who placed principle above party and conscience above convenience. His long career was defined not by ambition or allegiance, but by an unshakable devotion to fairness,...