Outside the Beltway

Even the most offensive speech is protected by the First Amendment.

Lt. General Michael Flynn wants immunity before he agrees to testify before Congress. This could be significant, or it could mean nothing at all.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Maryland’s ban on certain so-called “assault weapons,” but it’s unclear if the Supreme Court will even take up the case.

Public defenders in New Mexico are overworked, underfunded, and outmatched, but then that’s true pretty much everywhere in the country.

Notwithstanding the election results, support for eliminating the Electoral College is at a 20-year low.

Two Republican Senators are exchanging barbs over the idea that the GOP should block any attempt by Hillary Clinton to nominate anyone to the Supreme Court if she becomes President.

Donald Trump’s admiration and praise for the dictatorial leader of Russia should be sufficient reason to disqualify him from being President of the United States.

When it comes to the protections of the Fourth Amendment, it doesn’t matter if you’re “guilty” or “innocent,” it protects all of us.

As expected, the Senate rejected four gun control measures introduced in the wake of the attack in Orlando.

Continuing a pattern that began six years ago, the Supreme Court has again declined to hear an appeal in a case involving a challenge to state gun control laws.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals deals a setback to the gun rights movement.

The Supreme Court has declined to accept an appeal challenging a law barring certain types of so-called ‘assault weapons’ in a Chicago suburb.

Protests by students at Princeton are causing some people to finally pay attention to some inconvenient truths about America’s 28th President.

A Chicago Police Officer has been charged with murder in the death of a 17 year old African-American male that, from the evidence that has been released, seems completely unjustifiable.

The Supreme Court is now considering a case that deals with the problem of overly broad civil asset forfeiture laws and a Defendant’s right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment.

A new poll shows an up-tick in public support for some gun control measures, but gun control advocates can’t ignore the political reality that says those restrictions are unlikely to ever become law.

The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the way the death penalty is administered, dealing a serious blow to opponents of the death penalty.

Debating the proper role of the judiciary.

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.

We have unreasonable expectations for airlines.

Hillary Clinton told supporters she’d require Supreme Court nominees to pledge to overturn Citizens United, a decision she completely misrepresented.

Legislators in Tennessee have taken the “gun rights” argument further than it was ever intended to go.

Rand Paul has been cozying up to social conservatives lately, but he risks alienating the people most likely to support his campaign for the White House.

John McCain is not a fan of Code Pink.

Civil asset forfeiture gives “highway robbery” a whole new meaning.

Not surprisingly, a law passed in the wake of the September 11th attacks has been used mostly for things that have nothing to do with terrorism.

Would increasing the size of the House of Representatives be the cure for what ails Congress?

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.

Dan Froomkin says Obama is as bad as Bush, if not worse.

In a logical extension of the Supreme Court’s decision in D.C. v. Heller, a Federal Judge has struck down D.C.’s law barring people from carrying handguns in public.

Once again, Republicans are attacking someone for doing a job the Bill of Rights itself makes necessary and important.

A pretty clear violation of the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court has again ruled that prayers that open legislative sessions are not unconstitutional.

The Justice Department thinks police should be able to search the smart phones of anyone arrested for anything.

Continuing the discussion from earlier this week on hate crimes.

Republicans attack an attorney for doing his job. So much for that whole “constitutional conservative” thing, I guess.

The Second Amendment isn’t broken, and you don’t fix things that aren’t broken.

The Supreme Court turns down a case dealing with student’s First Amendment rights.

Another Circuit Court finds that the Second Amendment protects a right to carry a weapon in public.

A Federal Judge in New York upholds, for the most part, that state’s new gun control law.

Another Federal District Court ruling on the Constitutionality of the NSA’s data mining program, this time more favorable to the NSA.

The President is neither messiah nor devil, and the media does the public no favors when it treats him as either.

Do prayers opening legislative sessions violate the First Amendment? The Supreme Court is set to decide that issue.

NSA Director General Keith Alexander really doesn’t like the idea of a free press.

Divided government is the worst political system ever, except for all the others.

My latest for The National Interest, “Clapper’s Bodyguard of Lies,” has posted.

A case from Nevada provides another example of police abuse, and a possible claim arising under the long-forgotten Third Amendment.

Contemporary Americans accept actions by the state that were once the cause for revolt.

Some really bad advice for the GOP.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court narrowly decided a case on the right against self-incrimination that is likely to do great harm to individual rights.