Latest Stories By Louis Jacobson

The House’s Jan. 6 select committee has completed its second prime-time hearing, and its eighth overall. What’s next? The specifics of any future business of the committee remain unclear — to the public, and quite possibly to the committee itself, since members have been saying for weeks that every new hearing has brought new witnesses […]

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, sending abortion policy back to the states, could the court do the same thing with same-sex marriage by overturning the 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges? One justice in the majority that overturned Roe, Clarence Thomas, wrote in a concurring opinion that the court “should […]

Most of the states that have acted quickly to curb abortions after the reversal of Roe v. Wade have decided to do away with one longstanding element of abortion policymaking: allowing abortions in the case of rape or incest. The matter attracted national attention in July after it was reported that a 10-year old Ohio […]

Critics, including conservative media outlets, attacked President Joe Biden for selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to a Chinese-owned company. Some of the coverage implies a connection between the sales and Chinese investments linked to Biden’s son Hunter. Experts in the international oil markets, however, told PolitiFact that the sales were governed by U.S. law, […]

President Joe Biden signed an executive order July 8 aimed at protecting abortion rights nationwide following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. In his remarks announcing the executive order, Biden said something that led critics to charge that he’d read out loud stage directions from a teleprompter.  The moment occurred about […]

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, more than a dozen states are moving toward outlawing or severely restricting abortion within their borders. Some abortion rights advocates have warned that this could put women at risk of having their personal medical records used by law enforcement. There is no guarantee that such […]

When the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade — the five-decade-old decision that protected abortion rights nationally — it created a new legal battlefield. One of the most vexing issues, legal experts say, is whether states that ban abortions can legally punish women for leaving the state to get an abortion, or punish people […]

The political fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade remains to be seen. But while public opinion polls offer some sense of what Americans think about abortion, the data is murkier and more contradictory than either supporters and opponents of abortion rights tend to admit.  Partly, that’s because views on abortion […]

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, the decisions about whether to permit abortion revert to the states. So what happens now? “What seems clear is there will be a checkerboard effect,” with some states allowing abortion said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor. Sixteen states plus the District of […]

Seeking to address record-high gas prices nationwide, President Joe Biden has called on Congress and states to enact gas tax holidays. In remarks on June 22, Biden called on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax for 90 days. Such a move would reduce prices at the pump by 18 cents per gallon on gasoline […]

For a month before the attack on the Capitol, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were locked in a running battle. Trump was adamant that Pence had the power to stop the certification of the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6. Pence was just as adamant that he did not. In the […]

Critics argue that the House committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, is illegitimate, amounting to a political hit job by Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans rather than a sober-minded quest to prevent disorder. The critics also contend that the process of filling the committee’s seats was partisan, and that, as a result, the committee’s […]