Outside the Beltway

The state of Mississippi is going to use DNA evidence to track down statutory rapists. Why not deadbeat dads?

Partisan targeting by the IRS should not be permitted to stand.

The American people aren’t panicking.

Are civil liberties once again at risk in the wake of the bombing attack in Boston?

The Boston Marathon bombing attacks are leading some politicians to make wildly absurd statements.

We treat violence by lone individuals differently than organized violence. Race, religion, and national origin have nothing to do with that.

Rand Paul’s filibuster has made him a darling among conservatives but it may not last.

Rand Paul’s filibuster is one that all American’s should thank him for that.

Silly things members of Congress say (plus musings on authoritarianism).

Since 1877, it has been illegal for unmarried Virginia couples to cohabitate. That may soon change.

Based on the polls, the odds of some changes to America’s gun control laws will become law. It’s unlikely they’ll accomplish anything, though.

Robert Bork, the controversial jurist whose failed Supreme Court bid ushered in a new climate in American politics, has died at 85.

If nothing else, the Petraeus affair is teaching us a valuable lesson in just how extensive the Surveillance State has become.

Like the men who came before him, Barack Obama has vastly increased the powers of his office. Someone should have asked him about that last night.

Another loss in the Federal Courts for the Defense Of Marriage Act.

Secret surveillance of American citizens has dramatically increased under the Obama Administration.

Our War On Drugs is having a disastrous impact on our neighbors to the south, and they’re starting to notice.

Mitt Romney is a deeply flawed candidate, but that doesn’t mean the President is any better.

Apparently, questioning someone who may have violated their probation on the way to contributing to a series of international incidences is a major civil liberties violation.

The 9/11 attacks and our response to them changed America, and not for the better.

Based on its recently passed platform, the Democratic Party has given up any pretense of putting civil liberties ahead of “national security.”

Hey GOP, Lt. Sulu has some questions for you.

The GOP claims to be a party that favors limited government, but its foreign policy positions reveal this to be little more than a lie.

The Republican Party has apparently solved all of the nation’s real problems and decided it can waste time on nonsense.

A victory for the proponents of Voter ID Laws in Pennsylvania.

A Federal case in Virginia is testing the boundaries of what constitutes protected speech in the digital age.

Sometimes, we just ought to accept the fact that people have disagreements when it comes to hot-button social issues.

An important ruling on the Obama Administration’s contraceptive coverage mandate from a Judge in Colorado.

The Koch brothers will spend more money in this election cycle than the entire McCain campaign did in 2008.

Opponents of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United continue to miss the point of what the case was really about.

In advance of tomorrow’s ruling, some pundits on the left are displaying some very odd views on the role of the law in American politics.

New York’s Governor is proposing a change in the law that could spare thousands of people a year from an unnecessary trip through the legal system.

The president has come a long way from his days as a “liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq war.”

Alan Dershowitz thinls the charges against George Zimmerman should be dropped. With due apologies to the good Professor, he’s wrong.

While the United States has some serious problems with policing, we’re not a police state.

Eduardo Saverin has become a political whipping boy.

Did Joe Biden misspeak, or drop a hint that he shouldn’t have?

There are advantages to cash that electronic transactions cannot replicate.

We’re literally choosing locking up drug offenders over investing in our children.

Attorney General Eric Holder offered a somewhat alarming defense of the Administration’s policy on targeted killings.

A legal dispute exposes an open wound.

Conservatives are rejecting Andrew Sullivan’s Newsweek essay out of hand, but they ought to pay attention to what he’s saying.