So Much For the Institutions  —  Kennedy's retirement proves we can't count on elites to constrain Trump's worst excesses  —  When he heard that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy was retiring on Wednesday, a friend in his twenties told me: “Today is the darkest political moment my generation has experienced.”

Why Anthony Kennedy Gave Up  —  In his last year on the bench, the lifelong devotee of dignity and the rule of law joined Team Trump.  What happened?  —  It was always more fan fiction than reality that Justice Anthony Kennedy was a moderate centrist.  Democrats liked to soothe themselves …

Mitch McConnell Has Already Won  —  Mitch McConnell has just one goal: to preserve and extend Republicans' advantage in Washington and beyond.  He'll do anything to achieve that goal, indifferent to everything but the will to power.  We see this most clearly in McConnell's approach to the Supreme Court.

Why Trump Shouldn't Meet Putin  —  Americans should worry when the two men are in any kind of one-on-one negotiation.  —  After announcing that there will indeed be a U.S.-Russia summit in the coming weeks, National Security Adviser John Bolton issued a challenge to the skeptical scrum of reporters at his Moscow press conference.