The attorney general of the United States should not be influenced by the president or members of the White House staff on how to prosecute particular cases before the Department of Justice.

The department should have a healthy degree of separation from partisan and presidential politics.

That's not a matter of constitutional law. President ...Read more

"I'd like to talk about who we're running against. A billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians, and no I'm not talking about Donald Trump, I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg."

With that, Sen. Elizabeth Warren kicked off the most contentious debate of the Democrats' 2020 primary, two hours of direct attacks by all the ...Read more

It was refreshing to hear the urgency in Gov. Gavin Newsom's voice Wednesday when he talked about how homelessness has engulfed the state of California. To show how seriously he took the issue, he let it take over almost all of his State of the State speech to a joint session of the Legislature.

Newsom has already demonstrated that he gives ...Read more

Bernie Sanders has said that he will support the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, no matter who he or she is. But some Democrats worry that a lot of his supporters will not work or even vote for any other candidate, whereas the backers of his Democratic rivals will enthusiastically work or vote for anyone the party nominates, including ...Read more

Among the biggest questions in the 2020 presidential election are these:

How will liberals, moderates and independents winnow the Democratic field in the primary election on March 3 when California and 14 other states and territories vote on Super Tuesday?

If the economy stays strong through the general election, can any Democrat defeat Donald...Read more

It is a sign of our times that Attorney General William Barr tried to do something right and some illiberal liberals, including not a few in the media, decided that it was wrong on the basis of mindless presidential squawks, factual ignorance and in some cases political opportunity. What it adds up to is that the illiberal liberals are doing ...Read more

As we saw in the Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire, a quick consensus formed in media coverage of the debate in Nevada. Elizabeth Warren won, and Michael Bloomberg, making his first debate appearance, lost.

Everyone came ready to attack the former three-term New York City mayor, who has rocketed to second or third place in the ...Read more

Michael Bloomberg joined his Democratic rivals on the debate stage for the first time Wednesday night, and I watched the discussion with Jaylan Butler on my mind.

Butler, 20, is the Eastern Illinois University student athlete who was falsely arrested and detained by police in East Moline, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the American ...Read more

Much of the punditry about Wednesday night's Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas focuses on the shelling that former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took from his rivals. And, indeed, Bloomberg had some very, very bad moments, as well as a few very good ones.

Fortunately for Bloomberg, he wasn't the only one to be caught in the...Read more

A lot of the initial reaction to Wednesday's Democratic presidential debate focused on the way the candidates went after each other -- a Twitter wag sent out an ad for the movie "Knives Out" -- and the shaky performance by novice 2020 debater Michael Bloomberg.

But perhaps the most interesting takeaway from the debate happened toward the end. ...Read more

This we know: $300 million worth of TV and digital media ads, gushing into our homes and across our news screens, can rocket even a late-starting presidential candidate into the top tier of the White House wannabes.

As New York City's ex-Mayor Mike Bloomberg has just shown us.

But this we also know: Ultimately, even a billion dollar blizzard ...Read more

The attack on Michael Bloomberg in his first debate as a Democratic presidential candidate was fast and furious Wednesday night. I cannot remember seeing anything quite as intense and unrelenting in a TV debate as the pounding he took.

Front-runner Bernie Sanders immediately positioned Bloomberg as representative of the multibillionaires most ...Read more

The president of the United States isn't a king, and he isn't above the law -- or so constitutional law professors like me keep reminding everybody. But the painful truth is that there is one exception to this truth: the pardon power, exercised this week by President Donald Trump to free or absolve several white-collar criminals.

The ...Read more

Rep. Devin Nunes' war against the free press reached a new low on Tuesday when he barred The Fresno Bee from covering a major water forum in Tulare, Calif.

The forum covered matters of crucial public interest. The chief executive officer of Friant Water Authority, a public agency, moderated the event. David Bernhardt, secretary of the U.S. ...Read more

Back in the 1960s, when it had become clear that the Vietnam War was an endless morass, Vermont senator George Aiken suggested that we declare victory and leave. Donald Trump would be well-advised to take Sen. Aiken's sage advice in his trade war with China.

Trump initiated this trade war with confused and shifting goals. Throughout his ...Read more

The frequency of school shootings demands that students be taught to try to save themselves and their classmates should the worst happen.

The trouble is that some hyper-realistic drills have reached the point where students are traumatized. Schools planning active-shooter drills should apply common sense and require input from mental health ...Read more

They want to help.

That's what we keep hearing from President Trump's minions about California's massive homelessness crisis.

Trump's homeless czar, Robert Marbut, was in town last week, and I got a chance to sit down with him. U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson was also in Los Angeles last week, though not talking to me. ...Read more

It's time for President Trump to declare victory and end his trade wars. With the election just nine months away, it would help both the economy and his reelection prospects.

Economies boom and slump for many reasons and politicians often get too much credit and too much blame for both. Still, an administration's policies can have a significant...Read more

WASHINGTON -- So now we have a new chief law enforcement officer in the land, one Donald J. Trump.

If you are white, wealthy and well-connected, this is good news, especially if you have been moldering in prison because you were corrupt, vile and venal in business or politics. Acting on a whim, especially if you were overly nice to him or ...Read more