“A Judge Should Avoid Impropriety and the Appearance of Impropriety in all Activities.” –Canon 2, Code of Conduct for United States Judges In 1969, Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas was accused of financial misconduct for accepting a retainer from businessman Louis Wolfson, who had legal issues that could have come before the Court. Although Wolfson’s case never reached the Supreme...

I first heard about John Gilbert Winant several years ago in Concord, New Hampshire, while I was teaching a class on ethics. My co-captain, Professor Stephen Ambra, spoke admiringly of the three-term Republican governor of the state. However, the most compelling part of Winant’s story unfolded during his time abroad, serving as the U.S. Ambassador to England. In 1941, Democrat...

In 63 BCE, Rome was facing an internal crisis that threatened to destroy the Republic. Roman senator Lucius Sergius Catilina, known as Catiline, was conspiring to overthrow the government. With the help of a coalition of the discontented, his plan included violent uprisings and the assassination of several leading senators and political figures, including Cicero, Rome’s famed philosopher and statesman....

This is Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia addressing his Senate colleagues regarding the proposed Senate Border Security Bill.  » Read more about: This is Why I Have Lost All Faith in the Ability of Republicans to Govern  »...

Legend has it that a man once approached the Jewish sage Hillel the Elder with a challenge: if he could sum up the principles of Judaism in a single sentence, the man would convert. Hillel responded, “What is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow man: this is the whole of the law; the rest is commentary.” Hillel’s words...

In the midst of relentless hyper-partisanship and division, I wondered what Abraham Lincoln’s take would be. Here’s what he might have said. “America can be likened to a magnificent tapestry,” he said, “with each individual thread contributing to the overall fabric of our nation. No single thread holds more power than another. If our citizens come together with unwavering faith...

Last week left us gasping after the first presidential debate and apprehensive about what to expect from the Supreme Court this morning about Trump’s total immunity case. (Now we know the answer to the second issue.) Let’s begin with the obvious. Joe Biden did not have a good debate night. He had a disastrous debate night. Despite the rah, rah...

If you are a Trump supporter, you need to seriously consider the observations of the people who worked closely with him during his 4 years in office: “His understanding of global events . . . of US history was really limited. It’s really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t even understand the concept for why we’re talking...

With all the recent attacks on judges, this profile of a former municipal judge in Providence, Rhode Island is just too compelling and important to ignore. And it has overwhelmed social media with hundreds of millions of views. CBS reporter David Begnaud begins the story. “‘I’m just a small-town municipal court judge, just trying to do good.’ That’s what 80-year-old...

Journalism should never be a crime. Yet, Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin, has a different definition. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist for The Wall Street Journal, will face trial in Russia next week on espionage charges. “When such espionage cases go to trial in Russia,” Yevgeny Smirnov, a Russian lawyer who has worked...