Samuel Breidbart

Oct 1, 2024 | brennancenter.org | Samuel Breidbart

This was originally published by CQ Researcher. The ruling in Trump v. United States is an affront to democracy and the rule of law, forfeiting critical checks on executive power. It undermines criminal accountability for presidents if their law-breaking occurs in the course of “official” conduct, and it endangers democratic accountability by potentially shielding presidents from prosecution for trying to overthrow elections.

May 24, 2024 | brennancenter.org | Thomas Wolf |Samuel Breidbart

The Supreme Court last week rightly upheld the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding mechanism. But the most telling part of the ruling was how the justices got there. Dueling opinions by the Court’s chief originalists and concurrences from several of their colleagues revealed conflicting views of history’s importance to the case and what that history shows. Read together, they perfectly illustrate the false objectivity and antidemocratic thrust of the conservatives’ originalist project.

Feb 6, 2024 | brennancenter.org | Thomas Wolf |Samuel Breidbart |Elizabeth Goitein |Emile Ayoub

A federal appeals court in Washington on Tuesday rejected Donald Trump’s assertion that he cannot be prosecuted for his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. This landmark ruling marks a significant step in efforts to hold the former president accountable, clearing the way for him to go to trial for his multi-pronged effort to thwart the peaceful transfer of power.