As expected, President Donald Trump announced that he's declaring a national emergency so he can transfer money not appropriated by Congress to build a wall along the Mexico border.

He announced the measure in one of those bizarre statements that, prior to 2017, Americans probably thought were only delivered by cheezy strongmen in other nations...Read more

America has survived many national emergencies. Presidents have dealt with innumerable crises. Being forced to sign a compromise-laden spending bill doesn't qualify.

The announcement Thursday that President Donald Trump will declare a national emergency is an act of petulance. Trump's spokeswoman said he would approve a stopgap budget to keep ...Read more

The National Rifle Association deserves all the condemnation it has received and more for standing in the way of reasonable, lifesaving gun-control efforts. Because of the gun group's cynical hard-line policies and near-religious embrace of the 2nd Amendment, more and more Americans live at daily risk from gunfire, be it from a random shooter, ...Read more

Congress is properly pushing back against U.S. support for the savage war Saudi Arabia and its allies have waged in Yemen, which has killed tens of thousands of civilians. On Wednesday, the House voted 248 to 177 to invoke authority under the 1973 War Powers Resolution to withdraw U.S. forces from any involvement in the Yemen conflict.

Even if ...Read more

The U.S. government should not regulate social media. It should stay far away from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and the rest. Any regulatory effort might well violate the First Amendment. Even if it turned out to be constitutional, it would squelch creativity and innovation in the very places where they are most needed.

Until recently,...Read more

Policymakers in California have made some of the country's most ambitious commitments to reducing climate-changing emissions. State lawmakers voted last year to set a target of 100 percent renewable and zero-carbon energy by 2045. And city leaders in Los Angeles have committed to generating all of the city's electricity from clean, green sources...Read more

Few places in the United States have been as hard hit by the opioid crisis as Philadelphia, where about 1,150 people died from overdoses last year. So it is fitting that this is where the nation's first "safe injection facility," where addicts can use drugs under medical supervision without fear of arrest, is likely to open its doors.

At least,...Read more

Many of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates and would-be contenders have taken thoughtful and admirable positions on various issues over the years, eschewing blind partisanship and ideological dogmatism. Now they're paying for it.

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey was for a long time an advocate of school choice as a means of liberating...Read more

As a Trump envoy talks with the Taliban about a possible peace deal for Afghanistan, educated Afghan women fear they will be sold out.

These women recall the era of Taliban rule when they were confined to their homes, while denied education, health care, and the right to work. Although Taliban negotiators claim their views have changed, they ...Read more

It is easy to imagine an undiscovered Samuel Beckett play entitled "Waiting for Mueller." On stage, faithful Democrats vacillate between stubborn hope ("He should be here") and fatalistic despair ("He didn't say for sure that he would come"). In the end, they just wait, day after day.

Whatever Robert Mueller's internal timetable (seers like ...Read more

Amazon announcing it will not put one of its new North America headquarters in New York City is the latest in a bad run of events that raise the possibility that progressives have overplayed their hand. While progressives may be newly energized after electoral success in November's elections, they don't have the electoral mandate they believe ...Read more

Well, it's been a year. A year since 17 people were gunned down in the classrooms and hallways of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. A year since 17 others were left wounded, some clinging to life. A year since thousands of other students, teachers and administrators were left shaken to the very core.

But after the horror, South Florida did ...Read more

There's the Chicago you know, a sharp-elbowed town with its aspirations, its inequities, its mounting challenges. And there's the better Chicago you envision -- the city that doesn't crackle with gunfire, that pays its debts without forever raising taxes, that gives its every schoolchild a fighting chance at a better life.

Now come with us to ...Read more

She's progressive, she's smart, she's tough and it's a good thing that Sen. Kamala Harris right now seems to be standing in the front of a line of 32 Democrats who want to run for president. So say any number of observers, including some who count themselves as moderate.

The question is whether they want to make a joke out of justice and wreck ...Read more

The structure of the U.S. Constitution assumes that the electoral process -- aka politics -- is the primary means of holding federal officials accountable to the people. Which is why President Trump's tweet storm assailing the House of Representatives' oversight hearings as "PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT" is wrong as a matter of constitutional law.

...Read more