Among the many disturbing arguments in John Roberts' Voting Rights Act (VRA) decision, the most pernicious may be his invention of the "equal sovereignty" doctrine. In his Shelby County majority opinion, the Chief Justice struck down the VRA's Section 4 formula for determining which jurisdictions must be subject to "preclearance" in part because the VRA […]

Every July 4th, Americans gather at picnics, watch parades and shoot off fireworks to celebrate the birth of the United States. But some years are more notable than others. In 1826, Founding Fathers and former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson marked the nation's 50th anniversary by dying on that same Fourth of July. In […]

In a campaign email to supporters Tuesday, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced he would reveal "exciting future plans" next Monday in San Antonio. But if Governor Perry is planning to pass up a fourth term in order to wage a second campaign for President, he will find he already has plenty of company from inside […]

Memo to the good people of Tulsa, Oklahoma: If you hope to have any chance of becoming the smallest city ever to host the summer Olympics, don't start your campaign by insulting the rest of the country. Sadly, that's precisely what the committee organizing Tulsa's incredibly long-shot bid to capture the 2024 summer games has […]

God, it is often said, works in mysterious ways. Just ask Mike Huckabee. After all, the Baptist minister turned Arkansas governor turned Fox News host responded to the Supreme Court's marriage equality decisions this week by lamenting, "Jesus wept." But back in 2008, Huckabee had a different reaction to the passage of Proposition 8 that […]

During his confirmation hearings in 2005, John Roberts made three promises to the American people. Less than a decade later, he's broken them all. For starters, the future Chief Justice proclaimed his fidelity to precedent, a commitment he shattered so quickly that a Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) lamented he and his colleagues had been "hoodwinked." […]

As the New York Times documented last week, the choices and pricing of private health insurance will vary widely from state to state when the Affordable Care Act's exchanges launch this fall. In state-run marketplaces in California, Colorado and Oregon, residents will have a wide array of providers and plans to choose from. But in […]

Few issues incite Republican fury like medical malpractice. For conservative ideologues, malpractice lawsuits are a double affront which interferes with the righteous operation of the free market while lining the pockets of trial lawyers who help fund the Democratic Party. That's why, despite the near-total debunking of GOP mythology that frivolous lawsuits and "jackpot justice" […]

News that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had denied additional disaster aid to the town of West, Texas has Lone Star State leaders crying foul. President Obama, they charge, "used West, Texas as a photo op" and "turned his back on Texas and gone against his word." But while their disappointment is understandable, it's […]

Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames. Right now, a heart-breaking tragedy is unfolding in Philadelphia, where desperately ill 10 year-old Sarah Murnaghan is in a race against time as she waits for a lung transplant that is her only hope as she battles end-stage cystic fibrosis. But in Washington, Republican politicians and their media […]