Remembering Alexander Bickel's passive virtues and the Hobby Lobby cases  —  In the Hobby Lobby cases, five male Justices of the Supreme Court, who are all members of the Catholic faith and who each were appointed by a President who hailed from the Republican party, decided that a huge corporation …

THE STATE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN TEXAS IS NOW THE CRAZIEST IN AMERICA  —  It seems almost pointless to mention this but there is simply no state Democratic party in any of the 50 states that is so clearly, obviously demented. … Getty Images  —  If you want to see the clearest symptoms …

Sarah Palin On Hillary Clinton, Advice for ‘The View’ and Her Latest TV Show (Exclusive)  —  As Sportsman Channel orders a second season of her “Amazing America,” the GOP star offers her thoughts on the firings at daytime talker, Clinton's new book and our “incorrigibly disastrous” political system.

John Walsh Takes on NRA, Vows to Continue Piers Morgan's Gun-Control Campaign on CNN  —  “The Hunt” host says Vice President Joe Biden agreed with him that politicians are “scared s—less” of the NRA  —  Piers Morgan is gone from CNN, but new host John Walsh plans to continue his campaign for gun control.

Obamacare's next threat: A September surprise  —  Obamacare open enrollment closed March 31.  The White House's Obamacare war room did not.  —  Most state health insurance rates for 2015 are scheduled to be approved by early fall, and most are likely to rise, timing that couldn't be worse …

NEA Wants Duncan's Resignation  —  The nation's largest teachers' union wants Education Secretary Arne Duncan to quit.  —  Delegates of the National Education Association adopted a business item July 4 at its annual convention in Denver that called for his resignation.

No one is reading ‘Hard Choices,’ either.  —  By now, the poor sales of Hillary Clinton's new book “Hard Choices” are well-documented.  (Relatively poor, we will add, given the complex topography of bookselling.)  —  But another metric came to our attention this weekend which allows us …

Forget Red State, Blue State: Is Your State “Tight” or “Loose”?  —  A new theory about the cultures of different regions could go a long way toward explaining why the United States is so polarized.  —  It is obvious to anyone who has traveled around the United States that cultural assumptions, behaviors, and norms vary widely.

It's time for progressives to reclaim the Constitution  —  You cannot talk for very long to a conservative these days without hearing the words “constitutional” and “constitutionalist.”  —  Formulations such as “I am a constitutional conservative” or “I am a constitutionalist” are tea party habits …

To Improve Accuracy, BBC Tells Its Reporters To Stop Giving Air Time To Climate Deniers  —  Celebrity scientist Bill Nye and CNN Crossfire host S.E. Cupp debate whether climate change exists.  These kinds of debates will be few and far between on the BBC under a new policy announced Thursday.

Fourth of July weekend toll: 82 shot, 14 of them fatally, in Chicago  —  For 10 minutes, it seemed like the shooting was everywhere in the South Chicago neighborhood.  —  It started when someone shot and wounded a couple, then two people fired at the shooter, then there was a chase …

Conservative Delusions About Inflation  —  On Sunday The Times published an article by the political scientist Brendan Nyhan about a troubling aspect of the current American scene — the stark partisan divide over issues that should be simply factual, like whether the planet is warming or evolution happened.

Democrats Put Spotlight on Companies Moving Overseas  —  New data from the Congressional Research Service shed light on a hot tax question: How many corporations have exited the U.S. for tax purposes in recent years?  —  A summary released Monday by House Democrats says that 47 U.S. corporations …

Militia group heading to Texas border  —  A spokeswoman for the group, Denice Freeman, said the operation is a call for civilian militia members — both armed and unarmed — to voluntarily guard private property in the Laredo area and other Texas locations where owners feel threatened by …

McDaniel's Lawyer: We've Found ‘Thousands’ Of Ineligible Voters  —  State Sen. Chris McDaniel's (R) lawyer said McDaniel's campaign and supporters have found “thousands” of examples of ineligible voters who cast their vote for Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) in the runoff election for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.

New Anti-Obamacare Stunt: A Creepy Carnival On The National Mall  —  Generation Opportunity, a Koch-funded group targeting youths, will be hosting a giant carnival on the National Mall.  —  Generation Opportunity, the conservative nonprofit group who created the Creepy Uncle Sam anti-Obamacare campaign …

The Latest Snowden Leak Is Devastating to NSA Defenders  —  The agency collected and stored intimate chats, photos, and emails belonging to innocent Americans—and secured them so poorly that reporters can now browse them at will.  —  Consider the latest leak sourced to Edward Snowden from the perspective of his detractors.

Why the White House Ignored All Those Warnings About ISIS  —  Team Obama was told, over and over, that the Iraqi army couldn't stop a terror group that was ready to pounce.  But Washington was a prisoner to its paradox of an Iraq policy.  —  On November 1, 2013, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited …

12 shot in 5 bloody hours in NYC  —  The Fourth of July weekend brought the city's most concentrated explosion of gun violence this year, with 12 people shot — three fatally — in little more than five hours.  —  The bloody mayhem from Saturday night through Sunday morning also marked …