Outside the Beltway

A Federal Judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed against the President

Debunking a theory for why the Kavanaugh nomination was supposedly “rushed.”

The State of Texas is arguing in Court that a school district can force a student to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. This is a blatant violation of the First Amendment.

A Federal Judge ruled late last week that a lawsuit under the Foreign Emoluments Clause by more than 200 Congressmen and Senators can proceed forward.

We should take Congressional officers out of the line of succession.

I’m not the only one confused on what to do about the allegations against President Trump’s nominee to replace Anthony Kennedy.

The Twenty-Fifth Amendment has been in the news a lot lately, but what would it actually take to use it to remove a President from power?

Donald Trump is a bad, inept, and potentially dangerous President. That doesn’t mean that a ‘soft coup’ inside the White House is the answer to the problem he presents to our democratic republic.

An Oregon state agency is suggesting that Walmart’s decision to restrict arms sales to bar people under 21, but over 18, from being able to purchase firearms violates state law.

Alex Jones lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit filed by families of children killed in the Sandy Hook massacre.

For the second time this year, a three-judge panel of Federal Judges has struck down North Carolina’s Congressional District map. The immediate question is what impact, if any, this will have on November’s election.

A group of lawsuits filed across the country are seeking to challenge the predominant method for allocation of Electoral College votes. These lawsuits appear to have little merit.

Facebook, Google, and several other companies have closed down accounts associated with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

A Federal Judge in Washington State has, at least temporarily, blocked the release of files that would allow anyone to make a 3-D printed gun. The First Amendment seems to clearly indicate that this ruling is wrong.

A Federal Judge in Maryland ruled last week that a lawsuit against the President based on a rather obscure provision of the Constitution could go forward.

New York and several other states have filed an incredibly dubious lawsuit against the Republican’s new tax law.

An initiative that would have purported to split California into three separate states has been barred by the California Supreme Court from appearing on the November ballot.

Some considerations on the politics of Roe v. Wade.

Next term, the Justices will revisit the issue of whether someone can be tried in state and Federal Court for the same crime for the first time in nearly sixty years.

The current discussion about SCOTUS is a good excuse to look at how other countries handle these things.

Progressive enthusiasm for the notion that our governing framework is dynamic and ought be constantly updated by the judiciary is waning.

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court struck down a California law requiring Crisis Pregnancy Centers to provide information about abortion.

In a ruling that largely relies on the authority granted by Congress to the President to regulate immigration on national security grounds, the Supreme Court has upheld the final version of the Administration’s travel ban.

In a case that pit the new rules of cyberspace against the old rules about when the Fourth Amendment protects privacy, the Supreme Court ruled today in a way that breathes new life into both privacy and the Fourth Amendment.

We may finally get a ruling applying the Excessive Fine Clause to the states and limiting the ability of police to confiscate property.

A 9-0 ruling side-stepped the broader issue of to what extent purely political considerations may be applied.

In a significant First Amendment ruling, the Supreme Court has held that a Minnesota law barring “political apparel” at polling places is unconstitutional.

Some legal scholars are speculating that the Court’s ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop could impact the ruling on the President’s Muslim Travel Ban. This seems unlikely.

Based on a strict reading of the Constitution, a sitting President probably does have the power to pardon himself. That doesn’t mean he should be allowed to get away with it without consequence.

In an exceedingly narrow ruling, the Supreme Court sided with a Colorado baker who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding reception. However, the ruling did not address the broader issues raised by the case.

Echoing the Obama Administration, the Trump Administration is arguing that it did not need Congressional authorization to attack Syria earlier this year.

Earlier this week, the Illinois legislature ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. What’s unclear is if this act has any meaning at all.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that a police officer violated the Fourth Amendment when he conducted a search on a vehicle parked in a Defendant’s driveway without a search warrant.

President Trump’s response to the N.F.L.’s new National Anthem policy is as narrow-minded and divisive as you’d expected it to be.

A Federal Judge in New York has ruled that President Trump cannot block users from reading his tweets.

The requirement that the President be a “natural born citizen” is a historical anachronism that has outlived its usefulness or necessity.

Without Congressional authorization, any attack on Syria would be illegal, but don’t expect Congress to do anything about it.

A group of twenty states have revived an old argument to mount a new legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act.

Continuing a long-standard tradition, the Trump Administration claims it doesn’t need to get legal authorization to keep American troops in Syria.

Maryland and the District of Columbia are suing President Trump based on alleged violations of two provisions of the Constitution that have never been litigated before.

Wherein a law professor makes the absurd argument that the Electoral College, which exists pursuant to the Constitution, is unconstitutional.

Congressional term limits are a good idea, but they are only a partial solution at best and may not be the best solution to the problems facing our political system.

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.

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore tells Probate Judges they should not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, in clear defiance of the law and his duties as an officer of the Court.

Yesterday, the British Parliament debated the expansion of that nation’s military strikes against ISIS. For more than a year, our cowardly Congress has failed to even hold one debate or vote on America’s role in that conflict.

As expected, the Republican-controlled House passed a bill that would ban most abortions after twenty weeks. It also happens to be completely unconstitutional and has no chance of actually becoming law.

Two Duke University academics make an incredibly weak, ultimately unpersuasive, argument in favor of eliminating midterm elections by changing the length of Congressional terms.

Would increasing the size of the House of Representatives be the cure for what ails Congress?

An idea whose time has come? Not really.

A Federal Appeals Court has rejected a challenge to Obamacare based on a somewhat obscure provision of the Constitution.