Charles Lane

Washington, D.C.

Editorial writer and columnist

Education: Harvard College, BA in social studies; Yale Law School, MSL

Charles Lane is a Post editorial writer and a weekly columnist. Lane joined The Post in 2000 as an editorial writer, did a stint as The Post’s Supreme Court reporter and then rejoined the editorial board in 2007. Previously, he was editor and a senior editor of the New Republic from 1993 to 1999 and a foreign correspondent for Newsweek from 1987 to 1993. He is the author of three books on U.S. history and legal affairs; he is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Latest from Charles Lane

The World Bank provides much-needed rationality about global migration

Plagued by political mood swings, the debate over immigration could benefit from a bank's cool, calculating perspective.

May 24, 2023

When it comes to public transportation, there is no free ride

The something-for-nothing thinking behind zero-fare big-city buses is so flawed that economics even gave it a name.

May 19, 2023

The debt limit law has its benefits. At least it used to.

Laws depend on a minimum of national consensus to support them. The debt crisis will provide a reality check on how much damage has been done to that consensus.

May 10, 2023

Overuse of ‘existential threat’ is a crisis of existential proportions

The danger of a U.S. government default is bad enough without extravagant language adding to everyone's misery.

May 3, 2023

How the ‘other’ Great Migration transformed American politics

New research shows how the 20th century northward movement of southern-born Whites helped give rise to the New Right and changed the political map.

April 26, 2023

Nicaragua’s political future emerges from Ortega’s political prison

Liberated after months of unjust detention, Nicaragua's ex-political prisoners seem even more committed to their country's cause than before.

April 5, 2023

Lower fertility rates are the new cultural norm

We need answers to the puzzle of declining child-bearing. Social science seems unable to provide them.

March 29, 2023

The most underrated story in U.S. politics: The post-Trump consensus

Polarization and partisanship get all the headlines. But the surprise is how much consensus reigns in U.S. public policy. And Trump is a reason it happened.

March 22, 2023

In the Silicon Valley Bank debacle, greed and fear ruled, not the rules

The timing couldn't be better for a new edition of "Manias, Panics, and Crashes." Every financial meltdown has distinct traits, but there are commonalities.

March 15, 2023

In Belgium, death is not a penalty — but it can be therapy

A murderer confined in a psychiatric hospital requested, and was granted, death by euthanasia. That raises many questions.

March 8, 2023