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Austin Sarat

Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College. His most recent book is "Lethal Injection and the False Promise of Humane Execution." His opinion articles have appeared in USA Today, Slate, the Guardian, the Washington Post and elsewhere.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on May 21, 2025. (John McDonnell/Getty Images))

Brendan Carr defended free speech — until he went after Jimmy Kimmel

Austin Sarat
Demonstrators protest in Los Angeles following two days of clashes with police during a series of immigration raids on June 08, 2025. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Federal judge tears into Trump on LA — and warns the rest of us

Austin Sarat
An exhibition on the Black Power movement at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

Trump’s war on the Smithsonian echoes the fight over its founding

Austin Sarat
People shop at a retail store in New York. Wholesale prices rose 0.9% in July, the biggest monthly increase since June 2022. (Michael Nagle/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Wake up, Democrats — and hammer Trump on the cost of living

Austin Sarat
(Getty/Salon)

Trump isn’t “entitled” to Texas congressional seats

Austin Sarat
Emil Bove, President Donald Trump's nominee to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit, testifies during his Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing on June 25, 2025. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Rule of loyalists: Emil Bove would be the perfect Trumpian judge

Austin Sarat
A view of the death chamber from the witness room at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility shows an electric chair and gurney August 29, 2001 in Lucasville, Ohio. The state of Ohio is one of the few states that still uses the electric chair, and it gives death row inmates a choice between death by the electric chair or by lethal injection. John W. Byrd, who will be executed on September 12, 2001, has stated that he will choose the electric chair. (Photo by Mike Simons/Getty Images)

Texas could soon execute a man before his appeal is heard — and set a dangerous national precedent

Austin Sarat
Donald Trump and John Eastman (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

With disbarment decision, John Eastman’s downfall continues

Austin Sarat, Neil Goteiner
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts before the State of the Union address in the House chamber on February 4, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Leah Millis-Pool/Getty Images)

How progressive critics paved the way for Trump’s attack on judicial supremacy

Austin Sarat
U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson welcomes U.S. President-elect Donald Trump onstage at a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Harvard draws the legal blueprint for how to fight back Trump’s revenge campaign

Austin Sarat
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be U.S. Attorney General, arrives for a meeting with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, in the Russell Senate Office Building on December 2, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Looking to Trump’s next 100 days: DOJ tees up process for jailing journalists

Austin Sarat
U.S. President Donald Trump holds an executive order establishing the Energy Dominance Council led by Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in the Oval Office at the White House on February 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

A conservative judge makes the case: Time is running out on American democracy

Austin Sarat
Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Melania Trump holds the Bible during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (MORRY GASH/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Countdown to April 20: Americans brace for Trump’s big decision

Austin Sarat
Former Attorney General of Florida Pam Bondi, flanked by Donald Trump Jr (4th L) and Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick (R), speaks to the press outside of the courthouse during former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, in New York City, on May 21, 2024. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

Pam Bondi’s push for the death penalty in Luigi Mangione’s case is not about justice

Austin Sarat
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio speaks to supporters at a campaign stop on the Keep Florida Free Tour at the Horsepower Ranch in Geneva. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Marco Rubio’s mission to root out students “making a ruckus” causes collateral damage

Austin Sarat
President Donald Trump signs a series of executive orders at the White House on January 20, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Jabin Botsford /The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Trump’s executive order on voting is MAGA’s trojan horse

Austin Sarat
Joe Biden and Donald Trump (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

It’s not about the autopen — Trump is still obsessed with losing to Biden

Austin Sarat
U.S. President Donald Trump (C) and Vice President JD Vance meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office at the White House on February 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Oval Office dustup shows the power of Trump’s hyper-public presidency

Austin Sarat
Merrick Garland and Donald Trump (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

How Merrick Garland stymied one of Donald Trump’s day one executive orders before leaving office

Austin Sarat
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks from the Oval Office of the White House on July 24, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images)

President Biden bids farewell with an unprecedented warning

Austin Sarat
At the Meta Connect developer conference, Mark Zuckerberg, head of the Facebook group Meta, shows the prototype of computer glasses that can display digital objects in transparent lenses. (Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Mark Zuckerberg’s gaslighting can’t hide the truth for Donald Trump

Austin Sarat
Joe Biden (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Joe Biden’s most peculiar rejection: Why two death row inmates are refusing his clemency offer

Austin Sarat
Former US President Donald Trump walks back to the courtroom after a break in his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, on April 30, 2024. (JUSTIN LANE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Donald Trump will be forced to face justice before he takes office

Austin Sarat
Kamala Harris VS Donald Trump (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

MAGA’s 2024 win made the case: Make voting in America compulsory

Austin Sarat
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