ADAM COHEN

Set in the advertising world of the 1960s, 'Mad Men' is stunning to look at - a Camelot-era parade of smartly dressed professionals lounging around on midcentury modern furniture.

Anti-New Deal rhetoric has never disappeared from American political life.

Social Security, all public and no option, rescued older Americans from living their final years in poverty.

Gun violence in the U.S. is an epidemic.

A Reagan appointee, Justice Kennedy is no liberal, as he has shown on issues from affirmative action to corporate campaign spending. But he has repeatedly sided with gay litigants before the court.

It makes sense to have cameras in places where terrorism and crime are of particular concern - such as in Times Square or near major bridges and tunnels. It would be more troubling to learn, however, that the government has focused cameras on the front doors of our homes just to keep track of our comings and goings.

The press should not get special privileges - if they drive recklessly or put people in danger, they should be subject to every reckless driving and endangerment law on the books - but they should also not be singled out for special punishment.

Voter ID laws have a disproportionate impact on groups that lean democratic - including blacks, hispanics and students.

For technology companies, information about what people do online is extremely valuable - it can be used to sell targeted advertising or sold to data clearinghouses.

If the Supreme Court rules that rent control is an unconstitutional taking of property, it would put all sorts of zoning rules in danger.

Our movements reveal a great deal about who we are. A record of our locations over time can reveal whether we go to tent revivals or radical political meetings, abortion clinics or AIDS doctors.

Vampires are sleek demons for good times. They suavely leech off society - like investment bankers who plunder outsize shares of deals for themselves or rapacious fund managers.

As self-driving cars become more common, there will be a flood of new legal questions.

There is a lot of talk in conservative circles about judicial modesty and deferring to the political branches. That view of judging often overlooks the important role that courts have in protecting people's rights. But if there was ever a time to defer, it is when Congress is protecting voting rights in the exact way the Constitution directs it to.

One of the great debates about the Internet is whether it is making people more or less free.

If apes are given the right to humane treatment, it just might become harder to deny that same right to their human cousins.

It was not until the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s that Congress got serious about the assignment laid out in the post-Civil War amendments.

Federal law should hold organizations like the League of Women Voters harmless if they make good-faith mistakes while registering people.

A smart phone essentially creates a dossier of your travels, and consumers have no control over who will eventually see that information.

A federal Voters' Bill of Rights could press the states to put non-partisan managers in charge of elections.

There is no actual need to tighten voter ID rules: there have been extraordinarily few instances of people committing fraud at the polls.

If a company knows it may have to pay a large amount of money if it poses an unreasonable threat to others, it will have a strong incentive to act better.

Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets have a great deal of information about all of us - and the government wants to be able to see it.

If we are going to have self-driving cars, the technical specifications should be quite precise.

A key reason that elections are run so badly is that in most states, political partisans are in charge.