In the long struggle to make the United States more just and perfect, court majorities have made some horrific mistakes. When that happens, the burden falls on dissents to provide hope for the future arc of the moral universe. Such dissents often come from the most distinguished jurists. Benjamin Curtis, for instance, was the first...

On Thursday, a three-judge Court of Appeal overturned a trial court’s decision in the case of Vergara v. California, upholding the state’s existing education laws in a ruling of significance for millions of public school students in the state and across the country. (Read more about the sharply divided reactions after the ruling). The real implications of Thursday’s decision, however,...

It seems fitting. In life, Antonin Scalia was perhaps the most influential and controversial jurist of the modern era. While his admirers cherished his powerful mind and his detractors considered him a bully or worse, virtually no one denied his impact over three decades on the United States Supreme Court. It therefore seems somehow appropriate that...