menu_open
Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

The Hill

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Americans who want to protect democracy need to stand up for public libraries 

Public libraries, once considered the backbone of America’s civic infrastructure, are under attack.

22.04.2024 20

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Arizona’s bizarre abortion decision 

The Arizona Supreme Court decision was not just a political bombshell — it was legally bizarre.  

15.04.2024 6

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Missouri case shows that even people sentenced to death can be rehabilitated  

From the time he was sentenced, Brian Dorsey’s story was a powerful antidote to despair. It calls on all of us not to give up hope, even for those...

09.04.2024 5

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

The Supreme Court is playing grammar games with people's lives  

The court’s decision in the Pulsifer case is more than an English teacher’s nightmare. It guts a key section of the First Step Act. 

25.03.2024 4

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

The courts will not save us from Donald Trump 

Recent legal developments in Trump’s various cases should have made it clear that no one — no judge, no jury — is coming to save us or to rescue...

18.03.2024 10

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Biden’s State of the Union speech missed the mark on crime  

If Biden is going to win their votes, he will have to move the fear of crime to the top of his agenda.

11.03.2024 3

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Clarence Thomas’s conflict is clear — he must recuse himself from the Trump immunity case 

How will Thomas respond to these urgent appeals?  

04.03.2024 20

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

President Biden, don't allow DC’s crime problem to become Democrats’ problem in 2024 

If Joe Biden wants to win, he will need to take on the crime issue.

26.02.2024 6

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

With Trump, the future of reproductive rights is on the ballot 

If Trump is re-elected, he will not rest with Dobbs. He will go after reproductive rights everywhere.  

19.02.2024 6

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

What South Carolina’s execution dilemma says about America’s death penalty 

What happens in a state that authorizes the death penalty but has no legal means of carrying it out?

12.02.2024 8

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

The perils of polling 

America is poll-obsessed.  

05.02.2024 30

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

GOP hypocrisy reaches new lows in Trump disqualification case 

I guess Reps. Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise hope that people won’t recall what they said or did during the Trump presidency.

22.01.2024 10

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Here’s why Trump won so big in Iowa 

Trump’s Iowa victory should be a wake-up call.

16.01.2024 50

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Why Biden’s promise to ‘defend democracy’ won’t be enough to rally voters in 2024 

interest rates.”   In the end, Biden’s task is to connect the defense of democracy to the day-to-day concerns of the American electorate.

08.01.2024 6

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

New uncertainty about the Trump disqualification question further weakens our democracy

As if we needed more uncertainty in our electoral process, consider these two quite different decisions that were made last week about whether Donald...

03.01.2024 5

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

The Supreme Court’s refusal to expedite Trump’s immunity claim could make or break the 2024 election 

Smith is right about the public interest in getting on with the legal proceedings that will determine if Trump is a criminal. If jurors find him...

26.12.2023 5

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Even in Texas, the death penalty is dying   

What is happening in the Lone Star State is a harbinger of the fate of capital punishment across the country. 

18.12.2023 4

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Strange bedfellows: The ACLU and NRA unite for free speech

Our country is divided over the question of whether we should evaluate free speech claims in light of the messages or causes that speech seeks to...

11.12.2023 3

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

George Santos’s expulsion is not a morality tale

The more politicians lie, the more people come to see it as an inevitable part of political life.

04.12.2023 4

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Supreme cruelty: SCOTUS refuses to limit the tortures of solitary confinement 

The court’s conservative majority turned a blind eye to Michael Johnson’s suffering and ignored his request that it limit the kinds of cruelty...

01.12.2023 2

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Political prosecution is un-American — we can’t allow Trump to cross that line 

How would you like to live in a country where people who criticize the nation’s leader end up in jail? Sounds more like Putin’s Russia than the...

15.11.2023 1

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks on global economy: Watch live

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday is slated to deliver remarks on the global economy. The central bank has repeatedly raised interest...

09.11.2023 3

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Young Americans are losing faith in democracy — educators must act now

The younger generation has good reason to be disillusioned with democracy.

09.11.2023 4

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Why the war in the Middle East is politically risky for Biden 

As the war in the Middle East intensifies following Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack on Oct. 7, President Joe Biden finds himself in a political...

31.10.2023 1

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

What the defeat of Jim Jordan means for future of Trump and Trumpism 

In the end, the forces that did in Jim Jordan may help lay the groundwork for defeating in Trump in his effort to recapture the White House. 

23.10.2023 9

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Should colleges and universities speak on political issues? 

In the wake of the horrors perpetrated by Hamas on innocent Israeli citizens, leaders from President Biden to heads of cultural, political and...

16.10.2023 4

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Tune in live: McCarthy ousted as House speaker, what to expect next on Capitol Hill

More than half a dozen Republicans joined Democrats to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House Speaker in a historic vote on Tuesday, the first...

04.10.2023 2

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

With America’s democracy at stake, Biden stands on the right side of history 

It may be a hard sell, but the president is right: “For all its faults, though, American democracy remains the best pass [path] forward to...

04.10.2023 1

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Free-speech showdown: How Trump is setting the stage to defy any limits on what he can say about his criminal cases   

Donald Trump has already laid the groundwork for defiance.

27.09.2023 10

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Mark Meadows decision delivers a powerful lesson — and a blow to Trump

Judge Steve Jones's opinion makes clear that Mark Meadows failed to do what every White House chief of staff must do — namely, make sure that each...

12.09.2023 1

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

72efdf3bb8d5d24fc61107da4556e2b3