Within the next six months, the United States Supreme Court may well overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling which recognized a woman's right to choose an abortion. In Whole Woman's Health v. Cole, the Court will decide whether the state of Texas has placed an "undue burden" on women's access to abortion services by […]

As 2015 drew to a close, political observers of all stripes were rightly getting raked over the coals for their respective failures to predict the most dramatic development of the 2016 GOP presidential campaign. But when it comes to the unlikely rise and surprising staying power of Donald Trump, President Barack Obama didn't seem taken […]

In the wake of the terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 and wounded hundreds more, there is little doubt that the U.S., France, the UK and other American allies will step up their strikes on Daesh targets in Syria and Iraq. Beyond that, the questions about what the coalition should--and shouldn't do--to combat ISIS […]

In the wake of the slaughter in Paris, the 2016 Republican White House hopeful and their conservative allies have done a stellar job whipping up hysteria about the terrorist threat from ISIS. But when it comes to domestic terrorism from right-wing extremists, that dangerous amalgam of anti-government, anti-abortion and anti-tax radicals whose body count has […]

In the wake of Jeb Bush's disastrous debate performance this week, press and pundits have pronounced his campaign dead. Headlines declaring "Jeb died on that stage" and "Yeah, Jeb is probably toast" and "Jeb's chances for president, RIP" shared the same diagnosis. Jenna Lee of Fox News suggesed to him that his collapse on CNBC […]

Former neurosurgeon-turned-2016 GOP White House hopeful Ben Carson raised some eyebrows last week with his declaration that gun control enabled the rise of Adolf Hitler and the annihilation of European Jewry in the Holocaust. But no one who has followed "the biggest fan of Nazi metaphors in politics" should have been surprised by Carson's grotesque […]

Millions of Americans--Catholic and non-Catholic alike (myself included)--are eagerly awaiting next week's visit to the United States by Pope Francis. There's no mystery as to why. In word and in deed, the humble yet audacious Pontiff has reawakened Americans to the Church's teachings on social justice. But his challenge that "the excluded are still waiting" […]

For weeks, the battle over marriage equality in the United States has focused on Rowan County, Kentucky. There, elected county clerk Kim Davis has been jailed on federal contempt of court charges for refusing to issue marriage licenses in the wake of the Supreme Court's Obergefell ruling. GOP presidential candidates including Mike Huckabee and Ted […]

Of all of the Republicans' manufactured controversies during the Obama presidency, one less-remembered episode may be the most telling of all. Unable to prevent three-fifths of the Senate from voting to confirm Elena Kagan as the newest Supreme Court Justice, Republican in May 2010 denounced Obama's nominee for declaring that the Founding Fathers' three-fifths of […]