Outside the Beltway

A group of states led by Texas has filed a suit in response to new guidelines from the Federal Government regarding the rights of transgender students.

Following in the footsteps of state prosecutors, Federal prosecutors have announced they will seek the death penalty for Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof.

A Pennsylvania Judge ruled today that there was sufficient evidence against Bill Cosby to allow the sexual assault charges against him to proceed to trial.

An acquittal in one of the six Freddie Gray cases, but not an unexpected one.

Deflategate isn’t over yet and, depending on what happens in the Courts, could still be unresolved at the end of the N.F.L. season that begins in September.

On his trip to Hanoi, President announced the latest sign that the Vietnam War is finally something both nations have manged to put behind them.

Bowe Bergdahl’s Court Martial has been delayed until 2017, which raises the possibility that comments by Donald Trump could result in Bergdahl getting off scot-free.

Faced with the prospect of a 4-4 tie, the Supreme Court instead came up with a decision on the PPACA’s birth control mandate that didn’t decide anything.

Begun, the bathroom wars have.

A Federal Court has ruled that the Administration violated the law when it spent funds allocated under the PPACA for purposes other than those authorized by Congress.

No trial for Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood Robert Dear, at least not for now.

The political fight over North Carolina’s so-called “Bathroom Bill” has moved to the Federal Courts.

Surprising results from a new poll regarding “bathroom” bills and transgender Americans.

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has been removed from office again.

With Donald Trump now confirmed as the GOP nominee, some conservatives are suggesting that the Senate GOP should just give in on the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s fate lies the hands of the Supreme Court.

It may be the talk of Washington, but the political fight over Justice Scalia’s vacant Supreme Court seat does not seem to be something voters care very much about.

A Federal Appeals Court has reinstated the four game suspension imposed on Tom Brady over the so-called ‘Deflategate’ scandal.

In a huge step forward for criminal justice reform, Virginia’s Governor has restored voting rights for some 200,000 people who have paid their debt to society.

The Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case challenging the President’s deportation relief plan, but it’s unlikely we’ll see a ruling on the merits.

A New Jersey judge, along with a Judge in Pennsylvania, is among the first to rule on the meaning of the ‘natural born citizen’ clause.

A Connecticut Judge has allowed a lawsuit against the manufacturer and seller of the weapons used in the Sandy Hook Shootings to go forward, but a Federal Law appears to make dismissal inevitable.

Justice Sotomayor argued last week that we ought to look somewhere other than just the Courts of Appeal, the Ivy League, and the Northeast for Supreme Court Justices. She’s right.

A group of New England Patriots fans are providing us with the latest example of stupid lawsuits that don’t belong in Court at all.

Bernie Sanders pulled off another win, but it puts him no closer to having a realistic chance of winning the nomination.

One down. How many more to go?

With surprising unanimity, the Supreme Court rejected an effort to restrict the meaning of ‘one person, one vote’ in legislative redistricting.

A treasure trove of documents from a law firm in Panama could prove problematic for a large group of international leaders.

Two Republicans who broke with their party to support hearings for Judge Merrick Garland have changed their minds and gotten back in line with the Senate GOP Caucus.

A victory in the fight to reform civil asset forfeiture laws.

The Supreme Court appears to be looking for a way to resolve an issue that has been mired in controversy for six years now.

The 2016 Campaign just keeps getting weirder.

Thanks to an equally divided Supreme Court, public employee unions won a case they most likely would have lost had Justice Scalia lived.

Conservatives are doing all they can to make sure Merrick Garland does not get either a hearing or a vote in the Senate, and it’s working.

Another Republican Senator has broken ranks and called for hearings on the nomination of Merrick Garland, as another poll shows most Americans support hearings as well.

The Supreme Court appeared deadlocked during oral argument in the latest case dealing with the PPACA’s contraceptive coverage mandates.

It increasingly appears that the GOP is on the losing side of the argument over whether to hold hearings and a vote on the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit filed by Nebraska and Oklahoma against Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana.

George Will’s column on the Garland nomination sparks a few thoughts.

A crack in the wall.

President Obama has selected his nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court, now the question is whether the Senate will act.

The coming political battle over President Obama’s effort to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia will likely be unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Donald Trump has spent nine months encouraging his supporters to beat up protesters and calling the press “scum.” Words have consequences.

The violence that Donald Trump encourages among supporters is manifesting itself in real life.

The President could nominate someone to fill the vacancy created by Antonin Scalia’s death as soon a next week, but Republicans in the Senate remain firmly committed to their decision to deny the as yet unnamed nominee any consideration.

The producer behind a group of music legends has passed away at the age of 90.

Another poll shows that most Americans would prefer that the vacancy on the Supreme Court be filled by President Obama than that it be left open for the next President to fill, but other factors make it unlikely the Senate will act.