Outside the Beltway

The murders in Charleston have revived a debate that should have been over a long time ago.

Pope Francis’s new encyclical isn’t exactly being received positively by American conservatives, because they seem to be missing the point.

A word that has come in recent years to be used to refer chiefly to Muslim fanatics obviously applies to a man who murdered nine people because they’re black.

More Democrats are calling themselves “liberal” than they have in years. Republicans, too.

The Supreme Court ruled that states don’t have to grant license plates that display the Confederate flag. Their decision has the potential to seriously harm the First Amendment.

Surely it’s time to put a woman on American currency again, but why go after Alexander Hamilton?

Nine people died overnight in a shooting at an historic African-American Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Whether Republicans are ready or not, Donald Trump is coming.

Two new polls show Bernie Sanders rising in the polls in New Hampshire, but they likely don’t mean anything in the long term.

We live in a random and chaotic universe.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court let stand a ruling striking down North Carolina’s mandatory ultrasound law.

To nobody’s surprise, Jeb Bush has entered the race for President.

Marijuana is legal in Colorado, but it’s illegal under Federal Law. Because of that, the Colorado Supreme Court dismissed a claim by resident who was fired when he tested positive for pot.

This should be the end of this story, but it probably won’t be.

A new Michigan law allows religious-affiliated adoption agencies to turn away parents for religious reasons, and it seems fairly obvious what the target is in this case.

Hillary Clinton opened a new phase in her campaign for President yesterday with a speech in New York City.

A black leader is running a billboard campaign to improve his community. Racism ensues.

Mitt Romney decided not to run in 2016 but he’s very much in the race.

Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.

A Federal Appeals Court In Washington has ruled that the military tribunal convictions of one group of Guantanamo Bay detainees was unconstitutional.

House Democrats defied President Obama on an important trade deal today, thus arguably marking the official beginning of his lame duck status.

The head of the Spokane NAACP has apparently been lying about her racial background, and that’s led to a whole other argument.

After 36 years, the quadrennial absurdity of the Iowa Straw Poll is dead.

A Judge in Cleveland has found that there is probable cause to charge a Cleveland Police Officer with murder in the death of Tamir Rice, but that is hardly the end of the matter.

Before the end of the month, the Supreme Court could issue a ruling that ends subsidies for the vast majority of people who bought insurance under the PPACA, and the political battles are already starting.

A new North Carolina law allows government employees to decline to perform their jobs by claiming it violates their “religious liberty.”

Iowa Republicans may be a day away from putting the Iowa Straw Poll out of its, and our, misery.

The American people don’t believe that liberty should be sacrificed in the name of security, but their leaders largely don’t care.

So much for freedom of speech.

It will be some time before sanity prevails in the GOP, but slowly but surely Republicans seem to be becoming less socially conservative.

Kansas Republicans are threatening to cut off funding for the entire state judicial system if the state’s Supreme Court strikes down a law the legislature likes.

Americans are growing more tolerant of gays and gay marriage, with irrelevant exceptions.

In a case that took seven months to decide, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Presidency’s broad authority in foreign affairs, and inserted itself just a little bit in the thorny politics of the Middle East.

In a setback for the gun rights movement, the Supreme Court has let stand a San Francisco law that places tough restrictions on handgun ownership.

Even with a recent negative downturn in the polls, the reports of Hillary Clinton’s impending political demise are largely wishful thinking on the part of conservatives.

The highest court in New York state has ruled that an undocumented immigrant brought to the U.S. as a child can be admitted to practice law.

He hasn’t declared yet, but Scott Walker is running for President, and he’s pandering to the most extreme wing of the Republican Party.

A wealthy alumnus has given Harvard $400 million, sparking a heated debate.

Yet another poll shows that most Americans support a path to citizenship, and that a majority of Republican agree with them.