Jonathan Zasloff

Here: A small Catholic college that invited Victoria Reggie Kennedy to speak at its spring commencement has rescinded the offer under pressure from the Worcester bishop, who described her apparent political views as out of line with Catholic teachings. Anna Maria College in Paxton, west of Worcester, released a statement today placing the decision at […]

Not very much, according to Justice Kennedy. I couldn’t help thinking about the Affordable Care Act cases when reading his opinion for the Court in Florence v. Burlington County, handed down Monday. The Court ruled that the Fourth Amendment does not forbid law enforcement from strip searching arrestees even if there is no reason to […]

About a quarter century ago, The New Republic had a contest asking for the record in bad character judgment. Its own example was someone (perhaps Lincoln Steffens) who had described Stalin as “unassuming.” It asked whether any of its readers had a better example. The winner was my friend Gideon Rose, now editor-in-chief of Foreign […]

From Jon Cohn’s report: Alito seemed particularly concerned that, because of the mandate, young, healthy people would have to pay more for their insurance, because they would effectively be subsidizing the sick. In a direct response to the government’s argument that the law’s minimum coverage requirement is “necessary and proper,” Scalia responded that it was […]

From the Associated Press (h/t Andrew Sullivan): “If the government can do that, what else can it do?” asked Justice Antonin Scalia, referring to the individual mandate portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He then questioned whether Congress could also require individuals to buy vegetables, such as broccoli. There is a straightforward […]

Well, when a politically ambitious appellate judge wants to avoid getting himself in trouble. As Ed Kilgore pointed out, SCOTUSBlog makes it clear that the Supremes might not even consider the so-called merits of the so-called constitutional questions regarding the Affordable Care Act. That’s because of an old (but still important) federal law called the […]

In a piece that seems to have created something of a firestorm, Peter Beinart calls for a boycott of Israeli goods produced in the occupied territories. I admit that Beinart’s piece enraged me — not because it is untrue, but rather because it is so derivative. People have been saying this stuff for years: what’s […]

Although I disagree with it on specifics, I have always respected the Roman Catholic Church’s position that its social teachings are a “seamless garment” — that is, it focuses on all aspects of its social teaching even if it does not fit neatly into political boxes. Well, it turns out that the garment’s got a […]

At least that’s the way that Bill O’Reilly phrased it the other day. His argument goes: 1) group insurance means that we are all paying for other people’s benefits; 2) this benefit is only accessed if someone gets sick or has some other health condition; 3) that means that some members of the group pay […]