THE MADGETTE

TENDING DEMOCRACY

• Big Money, Small Races NY Review of BooksSuper PAC money's outsized effect in low-information local races
• Honest Men Turned Knaves Law & LibertyPartisan strife as argument for checks and balances
• The Agonistic Constitution Law & LibertySeparation of powers as deliberately agonistic design
• Madison’s Toleration Law & LibertyMadison's hard-boiled case for a plural society
• After Brazil and Serbia’s Elections Project SyndicateLessons from far-right defeats in Brazil and Serbia
• Serbia’s Graduation Day NY Review of BooksSerbian students topple an authoritarian through an election
• The Banker Trying To Save Liberalism PersuasionCarney as liberalism with a moral core, against populism
• When ‘Country over Party’ Goes Only One Way The Free PressCross-party endorsement and the cost of country over party
• The Backlash to Corruption Is Going Global The AtlanticVoter backlash against corruption as a global pattern
• Election officials brace for federal interference but expect to persevere Minnesota ReformerDecentralized election administration as a safeguard
• Losing and Keeping Republics Law & LibertyRepublican history and theory against democratic malaise

AGAINST POVERTY & SUFFERING

• ‘Medically frail’ Medicaid enrollees won’t have to prove their inability to work to keep coverage Minnesota ReformerRuling shields disabled Medicaid enrollees from work-rule proof
• Using Denver as a Model to Help the Homeless NYT OpinionDenver's approach to homelessness, with readers' evidence

FINANCE & ECONOMY

• Why rich Ireland still feels poor Financial TimesIreland's corporate-tax dependence on three multinationals
• When the AI Bubble Bursts Project SyndicateBubbles leave infrastructure but debt raises the risk
• Anthropic reveals $900bn AI spending commitments ahead of IPO Financial TimesAnthropic's $900bn commitments expose AI unit economics
• America Can’t Afford an AI Recession The AtlanticAI investment as the economy's dangerous tightrope
• A Debtors’ Club for a Fragmented World Project SyndicateNew borrowers' club as Paris Club counterweight
• Expensive Pharmaceuticals for Targeted Diseases Marginal RevolutionEconomics of a gene-therapy cure's price
• Let China copy American AI The EconomistArgument over banning AI distillation by Chinese firms
• Trump’s Tariff Fiasco Could Save Free Trade Project SyndicateTariffs failed on their own terms; trade held
• Markets are dismayed by Lula’s surprise win—and for good reason The EconomistWhy markets distrust Lula's win
• The New Geopolitics of Mining Project SyndicateResource-rich states between US and Chinese capital
• California’s Minimum-Wage Experiment Isn’t Looking Good City JournalConcrete evidence on California's minimum-wage experiment

LAW & COURTS

• Justice Kagan Confronts a Broken Court NYT OpinionKagan turns from institutionalist to critic of the Court
• My New Dispatch Article on the Legal Case Against Trump's Section 338 Tariffs Targeting Canadian Imports Volokh ConspiracyLegal case against Section 338 tariffs on Canada
• Federal Court Rejects Trump Lawsuit Seeking to Block Certification of Alaska Senate Election Results Volokh ConspiracyCourt rejects suit to block Alaska certification
• Is Montgomery affirmative action’s final chapter? SCOTUSblogMontgomery cert grant may end affirmative action
• Justice Kagan: firing point blank in Smith & Wesson v. Estados Unidos de Mexico SCOTUSblogKagan's argument in the Smith & Wesson case
• Justices to debate when an established rule is “previously unavailable” in habeas case SCOTUSblogWhen a rule is 'previously unavailable' in habeas
• Court to hear argument in religious discrimination challenge brought by Catholic preschools in Colorado SCOTUSblogCatholic preschools and Colorado's universal pre-K
• The Politics of Poland’s Judicial Crisis Project SyndicatePoland's constitutional tribunal standoff
• Court to consider federal inmate’s ability to use habeas to accelerate transfer to a halfway house or home confinement SCOTUSblogHabeas and Bureau of Prisons halfway-house transfers

IDEAS & LETTERS

• The Conscious Pariah Lapham's QuarterlyArendt's unresolved position on Israel and Zionism
• The Knife’s Edge Lapham's QuarterlyArendt's 'Zionism Reconsidered' and the cost of dissent
• The Classics Everyone Should Read Today The AtlanticWhich classics students need in the age of AI
• If AI Thinks for Us, Democracy Will Suffer Project SyndicateOutsourcing analysis to AI as a democratic risk
• Curiosity is a cure for certainty. It’s also the enemy of humility, modesty, and self-doubt. Adam Phillips explains Arts & Letters DailyAdam Phillips on curiosity as cure for certainty
• The Battle at Fort Necessity Lapham's QuarterlyYoung Washington and the start of the Seven Years' War
• The Wisdom of Charlemagne QuilletteCharlemagne as scholar as well as warlord
• The invention of equality Engelsberg IdeasIntellectual history of the invention of equality

WORLD

• Lula Won—‘Lulismo’ Didn’t CompactLula won, but Lulismo did not
• The Spirit of Democracy Remains Strong PersuasionDemocratic victories in Brazil, Serbia, Venezuela: durable?

SCIENCE

• The World’s Perilous Ebola Complacency Project SyndicateEbola outbreak's exponential trajectory and funding gaps

MINNESOTA

• Judge orders Kenis Lopez Gonzalez to be freed, returned to U.S. from Central African Republic Minnesota ReformerJudge orders Shakopee man returned from Central African Republic