Outside the Beltway

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 Iowa Supreme Court strikes a blow for liberty.

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.

We have unreasonable expectations for airlines.

Jawbone is suing Fitbit for infringing a patent that should never have been granted.

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.

Turkey’s governing party suffered big setbacks at the ballot box yesterday.

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.

Lee Siegel takes to the NYT to explain “Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans.”

Dave Schuler proposes a “radical idea” to safeguard individual privacy “in the wake of the hacking of Sony and the multiple credit card exploits over the last year or so.”

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.

Humans have been getting progressively bigger, faster, and stronger. Not so horses.

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

Being required to demonstrate competency in liberal arts to teach is racially discriminatory, a federal judge has ruled.

A thirty-seven year long drought is over.

One more on this topic.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has been charged criminally for its role in covering up sexual abuse of children by Priests.

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

An Air Force general is bragging about a targeting technique being used against ISIS.

This is perhaps the silliest idea ever.