The 13 federal appeals courts across the country sit just below the U.S. Supreme Court. In theory, the appeals courts, each covering a judicial circuit, are equals. But often enough, one circuit court has taken on an outsize role in shaping seminal constitutional questions that end up before the Supreme Court. After Sept. 11, it…
With the Iowa caucuses days away, two of the remaining Republican presidential candidates — Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley — clashed on the debate stage on Wednesday night over the economy, foreign policy and their records in their states, Florida and South Carolina. The fifth debate this primary season once again was notable for the…
Ask Minnesotans about the state’s official flag, and prepare for a crush of critiques. Start with legibility. Viewed from afar, it is difficult to make sense of the jumble of dates, stars and the state slogan, in French, which rings the centerpiece image. Aesthetically, it is, well, not a marvel, many a Minnesotan will tell…
The perils of momentum. Within minutes of the opening question in the fourth Republican primary debate, Nikki Haley — the former ambassador to the United Nations who has been rising in the polls, though she is still far behind former President Donald J. Trump — found herself on the receiving end of well-practiced attacks from…
Gavin Newsom has a scant history of tough debates over his two decades as governor and lieutenant governor of California and mayor of San Francisco. But he is nevertheless unusually prepared for his nationally televised face-off on Thursday with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida: Over the past few months, Mr. Newsom has lived through something…
About 15 minutes after Nikki Haley took the stage at a town hall in a Des Moines suburb on Saturday, the former governor of South Carolina and ambassador to the United Nations, was heckled — twice — by men demanding to know her views on Taylor Swift. Members of the crowd booed, and both questioners…
The voters gathered at a brewery in Goffstown, N.H., to watch the second Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night were excited about many of the options on the stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. They were also looking forward to having fewer of them. “I’m hoping they’re going to narrow down the candidates,” said…
President Biden is planning to deliver a major speech on the ongoing threats to democracy in Arizona later this month, with the address scheduled the day after the next Republican presidential primary debate. One location for the speech that has been under discussion is the McCain Institute, according to a person familiar with the planning.…
The role of debate moderator carries prestige, but it also brings exacting demands and inherent risks: personal attacks by candidates, grievances about perceived biases and, for the two moderators of Wednesday’s Republican primary debate, a tempestuous cable news network’s reputation. Enter Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, the Fox News Channel mainstays who drew that assignment…
Americans who don’t live in early presidential nominating states — that is to say, most Americans — might not be aware of the advertising wars already underway in the 2024 campaign. For months, Republican candidates have been on the airwaves, plugging away at themes we are likely to see more of during the party’s high-stakes…