Outside the Beltway

Elena Kagan may be smiling because her confirmation is assured, but she doesn’t have as much public support as previous nominees.

In Court filings the Obama Administration is arguing that the health insurance mandate is a tax, and if they’re right the legal challenges to ObamaCare are dead.

Biden got hammered by the FEC for violating campaign finance rules. A big fining deal?

One conservative argues that the “scandal” over the New Black Panther Party’s alleged voter intimidation is a tempest in a teapot.

Oakland’s police chief, miffed at recent budget cuts, has listed 44 crimes that his officers will no longer respond to.

A common sense decision on broadcast “decency” standards was handed down by a Federal Appeals Court today.

Radley Balko, as tough a critic of excesses by police officer as any journalist working, offers a plausible defense of former BART cop Johannes Mehserle.

Did felons voting illegally put Al Franken over the top in Minnesota? Probably not.

Switzerland will not extradite scumbag Roman Polanski.

Attorney General Eric Holder said today that the Federal Government retains the option of suing Arizona a second time if the state’s new immigration law is enforced in a discriminatory manner.

A new poll shows that Americans have some odd ideas about the Constitution, and how to change it.

Let’s revisit the question of crime levels in Arizona.

A white police officer has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter for killing a black man. Now, the Feds are considering leveling their own charges.

A district court judge has issued a ruling that could have wide ramifications for the question of same-sex marriage.

Arizona has been experiencing a massive increase in violent crime of late, right?

Thanks to JaMarcus Russell, I have learned a new term.

The legal battle over immigration began today as the Obama Administration filed suit against Arizona over its new immigration law.

Some cops apparently still haven’t figured out that it’s legal to take pictures in public places — even of cops.

Not surprisingly, American’s partisan views on the Supreme Court are pretty much wrong.

The health care reform law faced it’s first legal test in a Courtroom in Virginia yesterday.

Not surprisingly, Elena Kagan finished her testimony without giving any real ammunition to the Republicans.

George Will has some real questions for Elena Kagan. Too bad nobody’s going to ask them.

The testiest exchange during today’s hearings in the Senate came when Jeff Sessions tried to confront Elena Kagan over military recruiting at Harvard Law School, and failed miserably.

Elena Kagan’s interest in vigorous and open confirmation hearings ended roughly the moment she was sworn in by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Miss yesterday’s opening round of the Kagan hearings ? You didn’t miss much.

Once again, the Supreme Court affirmed today that there is no Constitutional right to receive public funds.

The Supreme Court resolved a 100+ year old Constitutional ambiguity today, but the legal issues surrounding gun control remain as murky as ever.

As Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings begin, Senate Republican’s seem to have very little to hold against her.

When it comes to the Supreme Court, most Americans have no idea what they’re talking about.

Al Gore has been accused of sexually assaulting a “masseuse” in a Portland hotel room.

A group of oceanographers suggest that the oil from the Deepwater Horizon explosion will leave the Gulf in a few months. What happens then?

Americans on both sides of the aisle throw around words like “tyranny” and “fascism” about our system. But there are constant small reminders we are under the rule of law.

A Federal Judge in Louisiana has told the Obama Administration that it can’t ban offshore drilling in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The Times Square bombing case has come to a swift end.

Mitch McConnell says he’s open to a filibuster of the Elena Kagan nomination, but he has a very limited idea of what a “filibuster” actually is.