Outside the Beltway

Starting tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court dives into the most significant case that has been before it in many years.

Not surprisingly, most of the Republican candidates for President aren’t too keen on reducing the excessive growth in Executive Branch power.

Giving the President the unchecked power to kill American citizens raises some serious red flags.

My latest for The Atlantic, “The Thorniest Question: When Can a President Order an American Killed?” has been posted.

The US came a lot closer to something resembling a parliamentary system than most people think.

The Senate Republican leader is running a shrewd political game. But what’s good for the GOP is bad for America.

While the Constitutionality of the War Powers Act is indeed dubious, the fact that it was passed over Nixon’s veto isn’t the reason.

CA’s budget battles continue.

President Obama overruled his top legal advisors in deciding that the Libya operation does not amount to “hostilities” under the War Powers Act.

The War Powers Act’s 90 day limit is in sight. Will Congress force the president’s hand?

Another survey shows that Americans don’t know much about their own history, but does it really matter?

NYT columnist Nick Kristoff says America’s income inequality makes us a banana republic.

Former car czar Steve Rattner sat down with Ezra Klein to whine about how the American people and its Congress wouldn’t just turn over the whole economy to unelected experts such as himself.

Is President Obama poised to make a recess appointment for Elizabth Warren?

The Obama administration has persuaded the nation’s most liberal appellate court that the executive branch’s right to secrecy trumps the rights of people claiming they were tortured by the United States Government.

Colombia has sworn in a new president. And so begins the Santos era as the Uribe era heads for the history books.

In the first entry in this series we looked at a basic question of democratic theory. In this one, we look at whether the EC ever worked as the Framers intended.

Humor me for a moment: if your life was in danger, would you trust Julian Assange to keep your identity a secret? – Joshua Foust

President Obama is following the example of his predecessors in abusing his power to enact his preferred policies. Has he gone too far?

An oft-abused phrase.