With the Supreme Court taking up Arizona’s “show me your papers” immigration law, we’re once again thrust into a useful debate over the role of the government and the obligations of the citizen — and non-citizen. Rather than come at it from the usual angle, I thought I’d try something...

An ID card may force you to give up some of your privacy, yet even if privacy is lost, such an exchange is worth the benefit.

The number of schools ranked highly in guides such as Barron's Profiles of American Colleges is increasing, without any evidence that these schools' instructional quality is also increasing. Applicants and their families should be wary of letting these rankings serve as the main criteria in their college decisions.

Alex Brill and Alex Pollock discuss the impact of credit card swipe fees

It might be passé to mock the ever-obliging humanities departments in our universities and colleges, but there’s so much . . . richness in the soil underneath Faber College’s motto that one can’t help taking les clercs to task at least once a quarter.

Not all professors are radicals and not all students are timewasters.Many still seek knowledge, if not wisdom, but gap between the ideal and the reality has seemingly never been greater.

Since 2007, and apparently well below the radar, the safety net has expanded radically. The benefits available to those who do not work are sharply higher, and likely explain a good deal of the high unemployment we still see today. Staying home and collecting a government check has never been so attractive.

This issue of Political Report covers public views of income taxes, climate change, the national economy, card check, defense spending, and more.