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Austin Sarat

Austin Sarat

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Trump’s new security strategy endangers democracy

The president's retrograde National Security Strategy emphasizes profit and bluster at democracy's expense

09.12.2025 3

Salon

Austin Sarat

Trump tried to interfere in 2020 — and he just got away with it

Trump demanded "11,000 votes" to change Georgia's election results. To pretend otherwise whitewashes history

27.11.2025 10

Salon

Austin Sarat

Trump absolves MBS of Khashoggi killing — and shames all of us

Is the ability to get away with murder the true measure of political power?

20.11.2025 20

Salon

Austin Sarat

US Executions May Reach Their Highest Rate Since 2010. Florida Has Had the Most.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed 15 death warrants this year in the state with the second-largest death row population.

14.11.2025 10

Truthout

Austin Sarat

SCOTUS won’t revisit marriage equality. But the fight isn’t over

Just like with Roe v. Wade, opponents of marriage equality are playing a long game

11.11.2025 2

Salon

Austin Sarat

Under Ron DeSantis’ leadership, Florida leads the nation in executions in 2025

Florida leads the nation in executions in a year that has seen an increase in the number of inmates put to death nationwide.

11.11.2025 4

The Conversation

Austin Sarat

DOJ Had Its First Big Hearing in a “Trump Enemy’’ Prosecution. The Judge Was Not Pleased.

08.11.2025 5

Slate

Austin Sarat

“No Kings” missed the mark. Here’s how we can fix that

Opposing Donald Trump is not enough for No Kings to be truly successful

21.10.2025 30

Salon

Austin Sarat

Sonia Sotomayor’s Moral Clarity on One Particular Issue Has Been Striking

20.10.2025 2

Slate

Austin Sarat

What five scheduled executions in eight days tell us about the death penalty

Think the death penalty is for the “worst of the worst"? These cases will change your mind.

15.10.2025 8

Boston Globe

Austin Sarat

Texas Has Scheduled the Execution of an Innocent Man in One Week. Will Anyone Stop It?

09.10.2025 20

Slate

Austin Sarat

Brendan Carr defended free speech — until he went after Jimmy Kimmel

What happened to the FCC chairman is happening to America

19.09.2025 10

Salon

Austin Sarat

Ron DeSantis Plans to Execute an Intellectually Disabled Man This Week

16.09.2025 20

Slate

Austin Sarat

Federal judge tears into Trump on LA — and warns the rest of us

Like Paul Revere before him, Judge Charles Breyer has raised the alarm about what's coming

04.09.2025 30

Salon

Austin Sarat

Trump’s war on the Smithsonian echoes the fight over its founding

Thanks to states' rights politicians, the institution nearly never existed in the first place

22.08.2025 3

Salon

Austin Sarat

Wake up, Democrats — and hammer Trump on the cost of living

The party's winning message is staring them right in the face

20.08.2025 4

Salon

Austin Sarat

The toxic brew that awaits professors this fall

I’m not ready to return to the classroom and face the bleak condition of higher education.

18.08.2025 50

Boston Globe

Austin Sarat

Trump isn’t “entitled” to Texas congressional seats

The 2026 midterms will not be free and fair if Trump can help it

07.08.2025 30

Salon

Austin Sarat

A Rising Democratic Star Just Became a New Anti–Death Penalty Hero

19.07.2025 20

Slate

Austin Sarat

Rule of loyalists: Emil Bove would be the perfect Trumpian judge

A reckless judicial nominee who would serve Trump's agenda instead of the rule of law

16.07.2025 3

Salon

Austin Sarat

How the Catholic Church helped change the conversation about capital punishment in the United States

Catholic opposition to the death penalty is relatively new in the church’s history, but has helped shape public debate.

09.07.2025 9

The Conversation

Austin Sarat

Trump’s DOJ Launches Its Most Innovative and Menacing Assault on the Court System Yet

27.06.2025 10

Slate

Austin Sarat

Democrats should give Trump his due on the success of his Mideast gamble

Instead of beating the drums about yet another procedural problem, Democrats should give the president his due and change the subject.

26.06.2025 10

Boston Globe

Austin Sarat

With disbarment decision, John Eastman's downfall continues

California bar proceedings deliver another blow to election denialism

18.06.2025 40

Salon

Austin Sarat

How progressive critics paved the way for Trump’s attack on judicial supremacy

The perils of opposition party politics come back to bite

02.06.2025 10

Salon

Austin Sarat

Harvard draws the legal blueprint for how to fight back Trump's revenge campaign

Trump and his subordinates are using every lever at their disposal to make the university pay for disobedience

21.05.2025 10

Salon

Austin Sarat

Harvard draws the legal blueprint for how to fight back Trump’s revenge campaign

Trump and his subordinates are using every lever at their disposal to make the university pay for disobedience

20.05.2025 7

Salon

Austin Sarat

In Death Penalty Cases, the Quest for Justice is Not America’s Highest Value

Jimmie Christian Duncan learned in April 2025 that a Louisiana judge had dismissed his capital murder conviction and he would no longer face the...

13.05.2025 10

CounterPunch

Austin Sarat

A Progressive Justice Billed This Method of Execution as “Relatively Quick and Painless.” She Was Wrong.

13.05.2025 4

Slate

Austin Sarat

In death penalty cases, the quest for justice is not America’s highest value

The Supreme Court has ruled that executing the innocent does not violate the Constitution, but some states allow people convicted of crimes to bring...

12.05.2025 10

The Conversation

Austin Sarat

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

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 40

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