Matthew Filner, Author at Public Seminar

Feature

Interposition in the Age of Trump

Rethinking States’ Rights

January 12, 2017 • by Matthew Filner

In 1798, Congress passed the famous Alien and Sedition Acts. These four bills made citizenship more difficult for new immigrants, gave the President expansive deportation powers, and turned criticism of the federal government into a criminal act. (Sound familiar?) In response, James Madison wrote a series of resolutions ultimately adopted ...

Feature

American Fascism

The Presidency of Donald J. Trump

November 10, 2016 • by Matthew Filner

The United States did the unthinkable on November 8th: we elected a fascist. No, I don’t mean we elected a Nazi or any leader from the 1930s in Europe or Asia. But we also didn’t elect a neo-fascist, or a proto-fascist. Those caveats diminish the fascism that we face: Trump’s ...

Feature

The Invisible Constitutional Crisis

Options for the US Supreme Court’s Pending Vacancy

October 28, 2016 • by Matthew Filner

The United States is in the midst of a constitutional crisis. Yes, that’s right: one of the most important crises of our constitutional republic and it is going virtually unnoticed as a crisis. No, I am not talking about the Trump candidacy -- though reprehensible in multiple ways, it is ...

Donald Trump and Rape Culture

October 19, 2016 • by Matthew Filner

“This was locker room talk.” So began Donald Trump’s response, in the Second Presidential Debate, to being questioned about his sexual assault boasts in the now infamous Access Hollywood tape. Trump immediately moved to talking about what he called “more important things”: the danger of ISIS, and what he would ...