Outside the Beltway

A Clerk in Kentucky appears to be headed for a showdown with a Federal District Court Judge that she is destined to lose.

A Federal Appeals Court has dealt a setback to Texas in the battle over its Voter ID Law.

A little known Congressman from North Carolina has filed a motion to “remove” John Boehner from the Speakership.

After 30 years in prison, Jonathan Pollard will be released later this year.

Low costs and regulatory barriers are attracting people to red states–thus turning them purple and blue.

The GOP’s Trump-induced headache isn’t going away any time soon.

A County Clerk in Kentucky is being sued because she thinks she can refuse to do her job and still keep that job.

The Attorney General of Texas is responding to the Supreme Court’s marriage ruling by telling Clerk’s who issue marriage license that they are free to ignore the law.

Wherein I take the view that as our understanding of language changes, so too does our application of the Constiution.

The Supreme Court has issued a ruling whose roots can be found in case law going back half a century.

Political reality shows us that the shootings in Charleston are not going to have any appreciable impact on the likelihood of any type of gun control law passing anywhere outside of the bluest of the blue states.

As Governor Haley pushes the South Carolina legislature to take the Confederate Flag down, the movement moves beyond the Palmetto State.

A word that has come in recent years to be used to refer chiefly to Muslim fanatics obviously applies to a man who murdered nine people because they’re black.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court let stand a ruling striking down North Carolina’s mandatory ultrasound law.

A new North Carolina law allows government employees to decline to perform their jobs by claiming it violates their “religious liberty.”

The Senate returns tomorrow to try to pass an extension of the PATRIOT Act before it expires, but it may not be able to do so.

Marco Rubio seems to be in lockstep with the extreme social conservatives when it comes to same-sex marriage.

A woman discharged from the Marine Corps for violating multiple direct orders is fighting to the highest military court.

Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is continuing his absurd and dangerous war on the Supreme Court.

House Republicans are set to vote on a bill banning abortion in almost all cases after twenty weeks. What they can’t do is explain where the Constitution gives Congress the power to do this.

Once again, only six or seven states are likely to matter.

A Federal Appeals Court has ruled that the N.S.A.’s data mining program is illegal, but its ruling may not have a very big impact.

Some people in the media can’t seem to get it through their heads that speech they consider hateful is entitled to as much protection as speech that they support.

For months, Ted Cruz said the nomination of Loretta Lynch must be blocked. Then, he failed to show up when the Senate voted on her nomination.

As oral argument in the Supreme Court gets closer, a new poll finds public support for same-sex marriage at it’s highest level yet.

The scandal that will make everyone forget about Benghazi.

A bill pending in Louisiana seems likely to become the next national focus in the debate between marriage equality and claims of ‘religious freedom.’

Indiana’s RFRA will be amended to address most of the concerns of its opponents. That counts as a victory.

Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia may soon see the same battle over RFRA laws that is playing itself out in Indiana

The devil is in the details of what the legislature passes, but Indiana’s Governor has essentially conceded defeat in the battle over his state’s controversial new “religious freedom” law.

Bowe Bergdahl will face charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, and the White House’s narrative about this release lies in tatters.

Another setback for those opposed to Voter ID laws.

The 2008 runner-up has scared off all serious challengers for 2016. Why?

Another tone deaf action from leading Republicans.

A new poll of 2016 primary voters shows that even Republicans are coming to accept that gays and lesbians should have the right to get married.

The Supreme Court says that police who have a “reasonable” misunderstanding of the law can still pull you over.

Some on the left are suggesting Democrats should write off the South for the foreseeable future, but that would be as foolish as Republicans assuming that their dominance in the region will last as long as Democratic dominance did in the century after the Civil War.

The Supreme Court is set to decide if the state can deny a license plate with the Confederate flag design because it is “offensive.”

Clearly, the Romney campaign didn’t get the point of social media.

Texas has joined with 16 other states in a lawsuit against the Obama Administration over the President’s executive action on immigration. At first glance, it doesn’t appear to have much legal merit.

Columbus, Philadelphia, or New York City (well, Brooklyn really)?

Based on the available evidence, there’s very little evidence that Voter ID laws had a significant impact on the midterm elections.

An adviser close to Hillary Clinton is talking about expanding the Electoral College map in 2016, but even without such an expansion the GOP faces an uphill battle.

The GOP is dominant in the Southern United States, but it’s unlikely to last as long as Democratic dominance of the region did.

Voter Turnout was lower this year than in any midterm since the one held eleven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.