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Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

The Hill

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Why won’t Congress fulfill the vision of the Founders? 

Today's lawmakers are hardly what James Madison envisioned. 

03.02.2025 1

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Our universities need both free speech and diversity protections to succeed  

We need to think creatively about threats to open inquiry and ways to preserve and enhance free expression on campus. Reiterating well-worn attacks on...

21.01.2025 10

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Watch live: DC mayor holds briefing on inauguration safety

Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) will join other Washington, D.C., and federal authorities on Monday morning to brief the public on safety preparations for the...

13.01.2025 4

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

End state-sanctioned secrecy in South Carolina's penal system 

The regime of secrecy has won another battle.  

13.01.2025 5

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Biden's decision to block the US Steel sale would have made Harry Truman proud 

Biden’s decision serves as a reminder, as the new president comes to power, of just how much a president can do under the broad and often vague...

06.01.2025 6

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Happy holidays? Only if you don’t need customer service in America. 

Welcome to America’s customer service nightmare. 

30.12.2024 4

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

The peaceful transfer of power is rarer than Americans might think  

Remembering that history makes the peaceful transfer of power that Biden is promising seems less a rote exercise than a commitment that must be...

23.12.2024 5

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Christopher Wray’s big mistake: Why it was wrong for the FBI head to step down 

Wray should have stayed and tried to uphold the rule of law for as long as he could. That is exactly what he is asking his subordinates at the FBI...

16.12.2024 5

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Arizona AG panders on the death penalty  

It is a serious mistake for Arizona to restart the machinery of death and for other states to cling to capital punishment.

09.12.2024 4

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Democrats' hard 2024 lesson: Demographic change and identity politics aren't enough 

As the 2024 election results showed, identity is loose-fitting, rather than a surefire predictor of political attitudes and behavior. 

02.12.2024 8

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Don't just pardon turkeys — use Thanksgiving to spare lives on death row 

This Thanksgiving, governors should use their sovereign power to put down the executioner’s axe.

25.11.2024 5

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

A right to life, but not to die — it’s not just women’s bodies MAGA wants to control 

What just happened in West Virginia is unprecedented.

18.11.2024 4

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Voters rejected a 'woke' America — time for Democrats to listen and learn

Kamala Harris’s version of freedom was a caring kind of freedom, but it was also a technocratic, policy wonk kind of freedom — and many Americans...

11.11.2024 8

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

What does Donald Trump's return mean for the death penalty? 

Abolitionists will have to play defense at the federal level, and plot a long-term strategy for ending the death penalty in the United States. 

07.11.2024 2

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Biden's ‘garbage’ gaffe could elect Trump and do lasting damage to his party 

Last week, President Biden seemed to call Trump supporters "garbage," prompting a wave of faux outrage and callbacks to Hillary Clinton's 2016...

04.11.2024 2

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Should we allow prisoners on death row to volunteer for execution? 

A gruesome crime, a cruel penalty. Some might think justice was done. But was it?

28.10.2024 10

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

The punishment doesn’t fit the crime when it comes to the felony murder rule 

It is time for the United States to do what almost every other democratic nation has already done: abolish the felony murder rule. 

22.10.2024 2

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

The callous injustice of Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito 

However the Richard Glossip case comes out, Wednesday’s proceeding offered a chilling reminder that Justices Thomas and Alito want to undo our...

15.10.2024 4

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

The candidates’ response to Hurricane Helene tells voters all they need to know 

When Americans go to the polls in November, they will have an opportunity to choose whether they want a president who will put aside politics when...

08.10.2024 10

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

JD Vance is a con artist, and the debate proved it 

JD Vance’s debate performance was an elaborate ruse, whether he was talking about himself or his running mate, Donald Trump.

03.10.2024 10

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Marcellus Williams’s execution was a tragedy — hopefully the last of its kind 

What happened to Marcellus Williams fits a sad pattern in this country's use of capital punishment.

27.09.2024 40

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

In 2020, Trump complained the election was rigged. This time, he’s doing the rigging.  

If Trump loses, Americans need to buckle up and ready themselves for a post-election period every bit as difficult and damaging to democracy as...

25.09.2024 30

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Watch live: FCC commissioner testifies before House on Biden policies

Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr and other officials are slated to testify about Biden administration policies Thursday morning...

19.09.2024 3

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

JD Vance’s Machiavellian lies should be a warning to us all 

That politicians lie is hardly news — do the ends justify the means?

19.09.2024 4

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Trump’s special treatment is just further proof: Not everyone is equal before the law 

Donald Trump has tied the legal system in knots, using his status as a former president and a current presidential candidate as a tool to delay and...

16.09.2024 2

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Trump's all over the place on abortion. Or maybe he just doesn’t care. 

Neither what Trump said about IVF nor about Florida’s six-week abortion ban this week should have shocked anyone.

03.09.2024 10

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Living under the shadow of an unjust death sentence: The story of Marcellus Williams 

An innocent person entered a plea just to avoid a death sentence he doesn’t deserve; now, he is stopped from proving his innocence by the...

28.08.2024 5

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Why the Harris campaign is betting on hope in a time of pessimism 

Michelle Obama told the DNC that hope is making a comeback” — Democrats hope she's right. 

22.08.2024 4

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Why is it so hard to correct mistakes on death row? 

The fact that there are so many roadblocks erected to prevent success in freeing falsely convicted inmates from death row, and that it takes so...

19.08.2024 2

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Chaos is coming: Americans must act now to protect the vote from interference  

Democrats and everyone who cares about the survival of American democracy need to prepare now for what will unfold after the votes have been...

12.08.2024 1

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Trump's Adin Ross interview played into Democrats' efforts to paint him as weird

Former President Trump used an interview with internet personality Adin Ross to claim that Caracas, Venezuela, is a very safe place to live,...

09.08.2024 1

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

New report highlights the absence of mercy when clemency is considered in capital cases

Utah officials denied clemency to Taberon Honie, who is scheduled to be executed on Aug. 8 for the stabbing death of his girlfriend's mother in...

05.08.2024 3

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

What will Biden’s lame-duck legacy be? 

Before he leaves office, President Biden should ramp up his use of the pardon power to empty the federal death row. 

29.07.2024 3

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor

Did you read the Republican Party’s 2024 platform? You should. 

ignoring the Republican platform would be a mistake.

15.07.2024 1

The Hill

Austin Sarat, Opinion Contributor