Topic: Oliver Wendell Holmes

Chapter & Verse Amazon starts charging sales tax in California

While book giant Amazon is now required to charge customers sales tax in some states, it's already planning its next move: widely available same-day shipping.

A literary road trip through New England

Take a trip through historic New England and visit the homesteads of famous literary figures. 

Opinion: Tax day: How to remind Americans that paying taxes is a conservative value

To help create a political climate in which Americans can talk sensibly about taxes, let's start with kids: It’s time to make The Tax Talk with our kids just as much a part of our culture as The Sex Talk or The Drugs Talk.

FDR and Chief Justice Hughes

The overlooked story of the hardworking justice who stood up to one of America's most popular presidents – and won a victory for posterity.

Opinion: Supreme Court must rule: Obamacare sets dangerous precedent for freedom

With the Supreme Court set to examine Obama's Affordable Care Act, more than the health-care law hangs in the balance. If the court says the Constitution's Commerce Clause justifies the law's 'individual mandate,' government can essentially make people do whatever it wants.

Opinion: Steve Jobs and his art of simplicity

To Apple's Steve Jobs, design was not just a matter of aesthetics. It was also the experience of using products. His genius was in blending design and experience, tuning in to our complex lives and helping us orchestrate them. Just ask my mom.

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris

How 19th-century America’s romance with Paris helped to change the course of US history.

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood

How humans handle information has been a theme – and a concern – throughout the ages.

Free speech: Westboro church Supreme Court case tests First Amendment

A Supreme Court case challenging the Westboro Baptist Church anti-gay protests will test the limits of free speech, with First Amendment implications for other forms of expression such as Quran burning and racist demonstrations.

Opinion: The surprising star at Elena Kagan's hearing: Thurgood Marshall

Because Obama has avoided engaging the empathy debate, Republicans tried to use Kagan's mentor and former US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall as a way to taint Kagan's reputation.

Second Amendment ruling eagerly anticipated from the Supreme Court

Second Amendment ruling will be handed down today as the Supreme Court has its last meeting until the fall.

Opinion: Elena Kagan: Would she embody empathy as a Supreme Court justice?

President Obama praised Elena Kagan for her intellect and passion, but he only hinted at the quality he earlier deemed an essential ingredient in a Supreme Court justice: empathy.

Classic review: The Metaphysical Club

Louis Menand's fascinating history profiles a group of misfit geniuses who, in Boston in 1872, helped to shape the modern mind.

Are climate-change deniers guilty of treason?

Opinion: The Ricci riddle and the law's limits

What you thought about the New Haven firefighters case was probably shaped less by logic or law than by your attitudes about the world.

Letters to the Editor

Readers write about Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court.

Oops... Vice President "Buden" travels to "Wilimington"

Opinion: Fill Souter's shoes with a genial persuader

A liberal appointee wouldn't affect the court's rulings much. A liberal who can coax conservatives would.

Opinion: Supreme Court's bench has never been less diverse

Race and gender are important, but with six Harvard justices, President Obama should consider geographic, professional, and social backgrounds, too, when he evaluates nominees.

The Last Dickens

An intriguing meld of mystery and literary history centered on Dickens’s last novel.

Keeping up with the Jameses

A 'House of Wits' that dazzled even as it disappointed.

Opinion: Taxes – my patriotic duty

Quit grumbling. Pay up and be grateful!

Opinion: Who is free from public comment?

France's freedom of expression is being challenged in court – by teachers.

A balance between free speech and fear

Anthony Lewis follows the history of the First Amendment protections.

A balance between free speech and fear

Anthony Lewis follows the history of First Amendment protections.