I wrote this poem as part of the “Ode Off,” a friendly ode-writing competition with my friend Hannah Neprash. Each of us assigned the other a news story on which we had to write an ode within 48 hours. Hannah assigned me this New York Times story about the potentially salutary effects of video games […]
Archive | Other RSS feed for this archive
A Recursive Sonnet
I don’t normally write poetry, but many years ago, in reading Keats, I noticed a quirk in the title of one of his sonnets. For 20 years or so, I have meant to write a sonnet about it. I finally got around to it recently.
On Wikipedia, Lawfare, Blogs, and Sources
Coauthored with Stephanie Leutert A large, powerful organization with enormous influence over public debate is stifling discussion of an important national security issue. It has censored emerging ideas by prominent intellectuals and practitioners in the field. It makes irrational, outdated choices about what sources constitute acceptable reading for the public’s delicate eyes. Its conservatism about […]
Regulating Domestic Drones on a Deadline
Coauthored with John Villasenor. The Washington Post, April 20, 2012. In February, President Obama signed into law a reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that requires the agency — on a fairly rapid schedule — to write rules opening U.S. airspace to unmanned aerial vehicles. This puts the FAA at the center of a […]
The Death Clock: Don’t Count Out the Death Penalty Yet
The New Republic, January 7, 2008 These are heady days for anti-death penalty activists. New Jersey has taken the plunge and legislatively repealed capital punishment–becoming the first state in the modern era to do so. Today, the Court will hear arguments over whether the specific drug cocktail used in lethal injections constitutes cruel and unusual […]
The Conservative Legal Establishment’s Strange Youth Culture
The New Republic, May 28, 2007 When I knew Monica Goodling, a few years ago, she was the Department of Justice public affairs staffer with whom I preferred to deal. In her late twenties, she had come over to the department from the Republican National Committee; she was smart, capable, and conversant enough in the […]
The Executioner’s Swan Song?
The Atlantic Magazine, October 2005 Is it just my imagination, or has there been a palpable change recently in the Supreme Court’s approach to death-penalty cases? The Court has without question shifted gears on capital punishment. For years the justices turned a willfully blind eye to the claims of those on death row. They created […]
Leaks and the Law
The Atlantic Magazine, December 2004 Who is Patrick J. Fitzgerald, and why is the press so upset with him? Patrick J. Fitzgerald is the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, based in Chicago. He was widely regarded as an excellent prosecutor and a fine man. Late last year, however, Deputy Attorney General […]
Benjamin Wittes 