Michael Kinsley Journalist Quotations

They can't take your house and give it to the mayor's mistress, even if they pay you for it. But they can, apparently, take your house and tear it down to make room for a development of trendy shops and restaurants, a hotel and so on.

A Supreme Court decision that concessions of this sort were unconstitutional would have taken them off the table and actually increased the effective sovereignty of elected officials.

He hasn't said whether he remembers the episode itself - or, if he doesn't, whether that is because it never happened or because it happened too often to keep track. More important, he hasn't said what he thinks about it all from the perspective of 2003.

A couple of weeks ago, the court ruled that states cannot exempt themselves from federal laws against the medical use of marijuana.

The equal protection clause was a handy tool because just about anything the government does or doesn't do can be framed as treating people unequally.