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Austin Sarat

Austin Sarat

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A Powerful New Judicial Ruling Lifts the Veil of Secrecy Around Executions

07.05.2025 20

Slate

Austin Sarat

Looking to Trump’s next 100 days: DOJ tees up process for jailing journalists

Looking to Trump’s next 100 days: DOJ tees up process for jailing journalists

Democrats had a chance to stop this crackdown on press freedom before it happened

29.04.2025 4

Salon

Austin Sarat

A conservative judge makes the case: Time is running out on American democracy

Judge in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case issues a wake up call for America

19.04.2025 30

Salon

Austin Sarat

Countdown to April 20: Americans brace for Trump’s big decision

What Americans should do if the president invokes the Insurrection Act

15.04.2025 8

Salon

Austin Sarat

Pam Bondi’s push for the death penalty in Luigi Mangione’s case is not about justice

Why Americans should Be troubled that the Trump administration wants Luigi Mangione dead

02.04.2025 20

Salon

Austin Sarat

Marco Rubio’s mission to root out students “making a ruckus” causes collateral damage

Seizure of Tufts University student shows the First Amendment is the first casualty

31.03.2025 20

Salon

Austin Sarat

Trump’s executive order on voting is MAGA’s trojan horse

Trump’s new executive order is just the latest salvo in his campaign to change what it means to be American

27.03.2025 20

Salon

Austin Sarat

Trump Is Attacking Big Law Firms. Paul Weiss Is the First to Capitulate.

22.03.2025 80

Slate

Austin Sarat

It's not about the autopen — Trump is still obsessed with losing to Biden

The right's newest conspiracy theory is all about Trump's unending desire to relitigate past losses

18.03.2025 10

Salon

Austin Sarat

We’re Really Doing Execution by Firing Squad Again?

12.03.2025 4

Slate

Austin Sarat

He’s Using Autism as a Defense for a Capital Murder. It Might Work.

07.03.2025 30

Slate

Austin Sarat

Death by firing squad set to resume in the US – but no matter the method, all means of execution come with a troubling history

A death row inmate in South Carolina chose firing squad over lethal injection and the electric chair.

06.03.2025 4

The Conversation

Austin Sarat

From opposing robber barons to the New Deal to desegregation to DOGE, state attorneys general have long taken on Washington

All presidents should expect to be sued early and often by state attorneys general of the opposite party.

03.03.2025 2

The Conversation

Austin Sarat

Oval Office dustup shows the power of Trump’s hyper-public presidency

The confrontation between Trump, Vance, and Volodymy Zelenskyy hurts Ukraine and helps the American president

02.03.2025 10

Salon

Austin Sarat

A Troubling Development for the Death Penalty in the U.S.

Tweet Share Share Comment Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there,...

20.02.2025 10

Slate

Austin Sarat

A North Carolina Judge Just Acknowledged an Undeniable Truth: The Death Penalty Is Racist

14.02.2025 9

Slate

Austin Sarat

Why Pam Bondi’s Early Days at the Justice Department Look So Incredibly Dangerous

07.02.2025 3

Slate

Austin Sarat

The 5th Circuit’s Ruling Striking Down Youth Handgun Ban Is Utter Madness

01.02.2025 20

Slate

Austin Sarat

Trump’s Most Shockingly Ambitious Executive Order

23.01.2025 5

Slate

Austin Sarat

How Merrick Garland stymied one of Donald Trump’s day one executive orders before leaving office

Trump wants to ramp up the federal death penalty. Before he left, the former attorney general made that harder

21.01.2025 4

Salon

Austin Sarat

Joe Biden Clearly Thinks Donald Trump Isn’t Bluffing

21.01.2025 10

Slate

Austin Sarat

President Biden bids farewell with an unprecedented warning

Joe Biden breaks with tradition to offer a direct criticism of his successor

17.01.2025 40

Salon

Austin Sarat

Why Is a Democratic Governor Covering For Her State’s Disastrous Execution Practices?

14.01.2025 4

Slate

Austin Sarat

Mark Zuckerberg’s gaslighting can’t hide the truth for Donald Trump

Mark Zuckerberg’s gaslighting about Meta’s shameful decision to end fact-checking is still very dangerous

14.01.2025 20

Salon

Austin Sarat

Joe Biden’s most peculiar rejection: Why two death row inmates are refusing his clemency offer

The decision of two death row inmates to turn down clemency sounds crazy, but they are not the tirst to do it

11.01.2025 10

Salon

Austin Sarat

Donald Trump will be forced to face justice before he takes office

Last Friday, New York Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Donald Trump’s hush money trial, refused to quash the indictment and set aside the jury...

07.01.2025 40

Salon

Austin Sarat

MAGA’s 2024 win made the case: Make voting in America compulsory

If democracy dies in this country, it can be blamed on people who did not bother to vote last November.  During the 2024 presidential campaign,...

31.12.2024 8

Salon

Austin Sarat

Biden Just Made a Huge Defensive Move Against Trump. It’s What He Didn’t Do That’s Telling.

Tweet Share Share Comment Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox...

24.12.2024 10

Slate

Austin Sarat

Why Joe Biden should grant mercy to some of America’s worst criminals

With President Joe Biden’s term winding down, the subject of clemency has heated up. Biden now finds himself in a bind familiar to many of his...

23.12.2024 30

Salon

Austin Sarat

The U.S. Must Not Abandon Syria

Leo Correa|AP Syrians wave flags during a celebration in Damascus on Dec. 13 following Bashar Assad's ouster. The demise of the Bashar Assad regime...

20.12.2024 4

U.S.News

Austin Sarat

Don’t be fooled, Biden’s mass clemency may be another half-measure

Last Thursday, the White House announced that President Biden was “granting clemency to nearly 1,500 Americans – the most ever in a single day.”...

18.12.2024 7

Salon

Austin Sarat

Trump’s criminal state: MAGA’s jailhouse-to-White House pipeline is bigger than corruption

Last Wednesday, Donald Trump announced the appointment of Peter Navarro as a senior counselor for trade and manufacturing during the second Trump...

10.12.2024 90

Salon

Austin Sarat

Welcome to the New Dark Ages

Donald Trump has moved at warp speed to nominate people to serve in his Cabinet and other important government posts who have chosen loyalty  to...

07.12.2024 9

Salon

Austin Sarat

Before it is too late Biden must turn words into deeds on the death penalty

In the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election, opponents of the death penalty are mounting a campaign to convince President Biden to commute...

01.12.2024 4

Salon

Austin Sarat

"Morning Joe” has got to go

MSNBC's “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezinski violated some of the cardinal rules of journalism. Journalists, so those maxims...

22.11.2024 5

Salon

Austin Sarat

Two Separate Shaken Baby Cases in Texas Expose the Death Penalty as a Farce

Tweet Share Share Comment Two Texas death cases made headlines last week; both involved a parent who was convicted of killing their 2-year old...

21.11.2024 8

Slate

Austin Sarat

One-party rule can be democratic or dangerous

The 2024 election has installed a regime of one-party government in Washington. Come Jan. 20, the presidency, the Senate, and the House of...

18.11.2024 10

Salon

Austin Sarat

Joe Biden Can Preemptively Halt One Brutal Trump Policy

Tweet Share Share Comment There are 40 men on federal death row who have been convicted of capital offenses by the federal government going back as...

12.11.2024 10

Slate

Austin Sarat

Texas Lawmakers Did Something Unprecedented to Save an Innocent Man’s Life

Tweet Share Share Comment Robert Roberson, who was wrongfully convicted of a capital crime, was due to die on Thursday at 6 p.m. He is alive today...

19.10.2024 3

Slate

Austin Sarat

Laundering lies: Glenn Youngkin shows how easily media is manipulated to sanewash Donald Trump

Appearing on CNN on Monday, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin found himself in an uncomfortable situation. Host Jake Tapper asked the governor...

16.10.2024 20

Salon

Austin Sarat

On crime and justice, Trump and Harris records differ widely

Though crime and criminal justice policy are central issues in many elections, that’s not true in 2024. Surveys show that relatively few American...

15.10.2024 3

The Conversation

Austin Sarat

Donald Trump’s retribution will begin with a restriction of free speech

Ever since Donald Trump arrived on the national political scene in 2015, he has displayed a perplexing and troubling attitude toward freedom of...

15.10.2024 3

Salon

Austin Sarat

Weaponizing tragedy for political capital: Donald Trump’s assassination attempts fuel MAGA

Donald Trump made a hero’s return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the July 13 attempt on his life. In what has been widely lauded as an...

09.10.2024 10

Salon

Austin Sarat

Jack Smith shows his cards just in time: January 6 case looks like the winning hand against Trump

Jack Smith’s latest filing in the election interference case against Donald Trump contains explosive reminders and bombshell revelations about the...

03.10.2024 4

Salon

Austin Sarat

We’re Witnessing the Worst Execution Spree in Three Decades

Tweet Share Share Comment This week is shaping up to be a very bad one for death penalty opponents in the United States. If all goes according to...

24.09.2024 10

Slate

Austin Sarat

John Roberts’ MAGA conversion: How Donald Trump remade the Supreme Court in his image

Since he was appointed Supreme Court chief justice by George W. Bush in 2005, John Roberts has been something of an enigma. He initially tried to...

17.09.2024 10

Salon

Austin Sarat

Will Idaho Push Forward With One of the Rarest and Most Horrible Types of Executions?

Tweet Share Share Comment The state of Idaho tried to kill Thomas Creech once. It failed. It now wants a second chance. Last week, a state judge...

10.09.2024 2

Slate

Austin Sarat

From Afghanistan to Arlington, Kamala Harris can school Donald Trump on foreign policy

This is the second of a two-part series on tonight's first, and so far only scheduled, debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former...

10.09.2024 2

Salon

Austin Sarat

The end of the abolition era: Democrats quietly drop their opposition to the death penalty

What a difference four years make. In 2020 the Democratic Party took an aggressively anti-death penalty position . Not so this year. In 2020 Joe...

31.08.2024 2

Salon

Austin Sarat

Is South Carolina Willing to Heed the Clearest Lesson We Have About Executions?

Tweet Share Share Comment Carrying out an execution is always a complicated business that takes a horrible toll on anyone who is associated with...

30.08.2024 10

Slate

Austin Sarat