“Everyone needs an editor,”a veteran editor advised me. I count that among the most useful advice I encountered in a lengthy career. It is pertinent not only for journalists. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia could have benefited the other day from a fresh pair of eyes reviewing his written reaction to something President Obama said [...]

Any day now the Roberts court will release its Affordable Care Act ruling. It could be 5-4 against all or some of Obamacare, or as much as 6-3 in favor. Some people see Anthony Kennedy as the swing vote and that of course is possible. I’d look to Chief Justice John Roberts instead. I think [...]

May 24 will mark the 75th anniversary of Helvering, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, et al, vs. Davis, the landmark Supreme Court decision upholding Social Security. It would be fitting, if the high court rules in favor of the Affordable Care Act, that it announce the decision on the date Social Security was affirmed. The health [...]

The idealistic view of the Supreme Court as a disinterested institution above politics took a hit during the recent oral argument over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Paul Krugman expressed the disquiet many Americans who idealize the court must have felt when he wrote, “The second day of hearings suggested that the justices [...]

Texas Gov. Rick Perry put his foot, cowboy boot and all, in his mouth when he declared Social Security to be an unconstitutional Ponzi scheme. Unconstitutional? Social Security has been the law of the land since 1937. It was validated by several of the country’s finest legal minds. If there is ever a high court [...]