Hobey Baker remains the beau-idéal of the amateur sportsman, a species endangered by the NCAA’s budding plans for play for pay. What does Hobey Baker have to say to Charlie Baker in these days of change?
Thomas A. Barnico
Posted inOpinion
How ‘right to shelter’ in Mass. differs from NYC
The widely different degrees of policy-making freedom in Massachusetts and New York provide a bracing lesson about the dangerous limits on state and local policymaking placed by consented-to judicial decrees.
Posted inOpinion
Texas impeachment trial brings back Mass. memories of Daniel Coakley
THE IMPEACHMENT trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has ended with his acquittal by the Texas Senate. The months-long ordeal has concluded, but the eyes of Texas—and beyond—will probably […]
Posted inOpinion
Why Mass. chose an anti-democratic method of naming judges
THE ELECTION for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court mercifully ended last month. After $45 million in political donations, Wisconsin has a new justice. The “campaign” included charges that […]
Posted inOpinion
Look at the history: Taxes do make the wealthy migrate
MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS in November will consider a constitutional amendment that would impose an annual 4 percent surcharge on incomes over $1 million. The debate over the surcharge and the merits […]
Posted inOpinion
Ukrainian sanctions by Mass. walk a fine legal line
Gov. Charles Baker’s executive order imposing sanctions on Russia follows a long line of Massachusetts boycotts, divestments, and resolutions regarding foreign affairs. Baker’s order walks another line as well: the […]
Posted inOpinion
Mass. sanctions against Iran could be tested
THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION may revive the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” the 2015 agreement between the Obama administration and Iran that was discarded by former president Donald Trump. Diplomats recently […]
Posted inOpinion
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s take on the spoils system
“TO THE VICTORS belong the spoils.” So clucked a happy supporter of President Andrew Jackson in 1831, but the divvying of spoils after some kind of victory probably dates to […]
Posted inOpinion
The Mass.-New Hampshire presidential connection
VOTERS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE will soon cast their ballots in the presidential primary, ballots that for decades have borne the names of candidates from the neighboring state of Massachusetts. This […]
Posted inOpinion
Dartmouth’s link to today’s college oversight bills
SMALL COLLEGES continue to teeter, some to fall. Their students have suffered. The Legislature has taken note: 60 members have filed “An Act Relative to Education Transparency,” which requires “Massachusetts […]