We have front-row seats for a major fight, perhaps the constitutional fight of the century. Three contenders are in the ring, each a heavyweight. They are the Congress, the Supreme Court and President-elect Donald Trump, who just got involved. The outcome could reveal which of them wields the greatest power. Last April, Congress passed with […]

Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court finds itself with a thorny dilemma on its hands at the start of the New Year. For the first time ever, one of its own members, Associate Justice Catherine Connors, has been recommended for discipline by the Committee on Judicial Conduct after failing to recuse herself for an important foreclosure case […]

President-elect Donald Trump is assembling the leadership team for his new administration. As a public service, I’m offering tips for getting nominated to join his cast of amazing leaders. First of all, don’t enter this process for gauzy patriotic reasons like, “I want to serve my country.” Or “I want to protect the Constitution.” Or […]

My wife recalls the night of December 31, 1999 as a time of anxiety and trepidation. (Of course she views every night as a time of anxiety and trepidation. Okay, I’ll trim my toenails! Are you satisfied???) *Ahem* We were at her parents’ home for our customary New Year’s Eve celebration and feared that the […]

Brandon Granger, the son of Texas Republican Rep. Kay Granger, informed the Dallas Express his mother has been battling “some dementia issues late in the year” and had been residing in an assisted-care facility for the last half year. The most recent vote she casted on the House floor was in July, and she has […]

You want to know what to me feels like having to sleep on wet wool blankets? Doing research, that’s what. There’s no getting ’round it, it’s just plain tiresome, and I really hate having to do it. Except this time. For this column, the research was way, way cool because I conducted it in my […]

Will somebody please tell Donald Trump he won? I’m sure he’s seen the official results by now. I’m sure he knows he’ll be moving back into the White House on January 20. But he’s still acting like he’s on the campaign trail. He’s firing off tweets, trolling his opponents and talking about the United States […]

I came of age during a period as turbulent and confusing as the present, marked by the Vietnam War and then the civil rights, environmental and women’s movements; “gay rights” soon followed. For many, mostly but not exclusively on the left, those movements established a national consensus behind equality under the law and care for […]