Outside the Beltway

As usual, politicians and pundits are helping to create a climate of fear and concern about Ebola that is not justified by the facts.

New York State’s gun law takes rights away from nearly 35,000 people without any due process whatsoever.

The Roberts court has been very good on First Amendment issues, but it needs to address the First Amendment issue right outside its front windows.

Democrats are starting to worry that low turnout could turn a good year for the GOP into a very good year.

Their places are being filled by students who pay higher tuition rates.

Two more states are added to the list, with another three likely not far behind.

A Federal Court has given legislators in Richmond a complicated job.

The Supreme Court has given the GOP a way out of a battle that they are going to lose anyway.

Attorneys for celebrities caught up in the leak of nude photographs are targeting Google.

While the battle for the Senate remains up in the air, the Republican majority in the House remains secure.

The security lapses at the Secret Service just continue to mount.

Opponents of marriage equality clearly don’t like the idea of a “big tent” in the GOP on the issue.

One of last members of President Obama’s original cabinet is stepping aside.

While it still seems unlikely that he’ll run, Mitt Romney does seem to be leaving the door open to a third run at the White House.

The courts have been striking them down at a dizzying pace since June.

The chattering class is chattering about the President’s vacation again. It really is quite tiresome.

There are plenty of other factors that help our two major parties retain power.

A major voting rights ruling out of North Carolina.

Despite a high profile effort to oust him, the most prominent libertarian Republican in Congress survived his primary challenge yesterday.

Viet Xuan Luong pins on a brigadier general’s star today, becoming the first Vietnamese-American officer to achieve that rank.

Once again, Republicans demonstrate why they have problems with Latino voters.

The C.I.A. has admitted spying on Senate investigators.

Once again, the Tea Party has gotten the best of House GOP Leadership.

Notwithstanding the hype, there’s one very big reason why the idea of Elizabeth Warren as a viable candidate for President doesn’t make much sense.

According to some reports, President Obama may be about to make an end run around Congressional inaction on immigration reform.

The American people don’t want to turn those migrant children from Central America away after all.

Fairly or not, the President has created the impression that he is not a good leader, and there’s not much he can do about it at this point.

The South and Southwest have a much higher military enlistment rate than the Northeast.

Does it still make sense to give kids a 10-12 week break every year?

Another step closer to the Supreme Court.

The most novel argument yet against capital punishment.

A Silicon Valley businessman says he has enough signatures to get it on the ballot, but the plan to break California up into six states is most assuredly going nowhere.

It seems improbable, but the national landscape on same-sex marriage is changing so quickly that even the Republican Party may find itself changing faster than some might think.

Just some things to consider about Common Core standards.

Jose Antonio Vargas was brought to the U.S. at the age of 12 and never left. Now, some are suggesting he should be deported as soon as possible.

Trying to make sense of a very complicated issue.

Some people on the left are still trying to convince Ruth Bader Ginsburg that she needs to just step out on the ice floe already.

Hobby Lobby Is an important decision, but it’s one that the Supreme Court handed down a week earlier that will have the widest impact.

Some surveys suggest that younger Americans are less patriotic than older generations.

The Supreme Court’s next term doesn’t start for three months, but it’s becoming clear that the Justices will have to deal with marriage equality when it does.

The votes have been counted, the result is clear, but the battle between Senator Thad Cochran and Chris McDaniel continues to get stranger by the day.

The sad truth is that the bipartisanship that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 no longer exists today.

The Supreme Court has limited the ability of public employee unions to force people to join their ranks.