Walter Olson
Latest Articles
Human Rights Campaign's LGBTQ 'emergency' is all about money and politics
The Human Rights Campaign, in its words, has “officially declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States.”
Making voting compulsory is a bad idea — and wouldn't change our polarized politics
Two years ago a Brookings Institution and Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center working group called for such laws.
Trump is chipping away at Obama's remade federal courts
"President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans are remaking the federal courts in their own image,” declared NPR’s Nina Totenberg recently. Others agree: The administration’s lower-court selections will change America “for...
The price for making Justice Kennedy the top court’s kingmaker
The throne has fallen vacant. Anthony Kennedy is retiring after 30 years on the Supreme Court, and we’ll soon learn who will don his all-but-ermined robes in resolving the social...
A progressive push for more gun violence
Who ever thought the progressive position on gun violence would be to encourage more of it? Yet that’s the paradox in Philadelphia, where on Thursday the city council will consider...
It's perfectly normal for Mueller to call in New York's AG
"Mueller teams up with New York attorney general in Manafort probe,” Politico reported Wednesday. Commentators went wild. What could be more exciting than for the special counsel investigating the Russian...
Partisan prosecutions: How state attorneys general dove into politics
Having muscled their way to the front line in the nation’s political battles, state attorneys general are now in for getting roughed up along with the other partisan combatants. The...
No, Trump won’t roll back gay rights
If you believe many voices raised in recent days, gay people are sure to suffer terrible setbacks under the incoming Trump administration. New York magazine claims to have seen “the...
Occupy Albany: New York's far-left attorney general
Eric Schneiderman had no prosecutorial experience when he became New York attorney general in 2011. But he did have the unwavering support of progressives. As Ben Smith noted in a...
The lawsuit circus
Visit the online store at ASPCA.org, and you’ll be invited to make a symbolic donation enabling the animal-welfare charity to carry on one of its beloved activities. Give $20, and...
Behind the smears
Here’s something you may not know about the 1987 battle that kept Robert Bork off the Supreme Court: Opponents pursued a whispering campaign against him on the grounds that he...
Patients, docs win — and lawyers lose
Look northeast, docs: Late last month, over a veto from Democratic Gov. John Lynch, New Hampshire lawmakers enacted an “early offer” system for medical-malpractice claims that could become a national...
Devil’s bargain: Wall St. & the Martin act
Business leaders are fuming over Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s nervy use of the Martin Act, the state law that gives him super-broad powers to investigate and press charges against alleged...
Animal house
For the service goat, assistance monkey and emotional-support iguana, it could be the end of an era. Under new federal rules taking effect Tuesday, the Americans with Disabilities Act will...
Spano's 'suicide'
Why did Westchester voters throw out incumbent County Executive Andy Spano in favor of Republican challenger Rob Astorino by an impressive 58-42 margin? Taxes no doubt ranked high as an...
COURT: DISCRIMINATE -- WITH DISCRETION
MORAL of the day: If you're going to give white job applicants the shaft, don't be blatant about it. Moral No. 2: Don't annoy Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Yesterday's...
HOFSTRA HOSTS A TERROR FAN
HOW politicized are America's law schools? So much so that administrators at Long Island's Hofstra Law School may well have had no idea that they'd touch off a furor when...