The bipartisan Border Tax Equity Act, or H.R. 2600, has just been introduced by Reps. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J., Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., Michael H. Michaud, D-Maine and Walter B. Jones, R-N.C. The purpose is to correct border-tax inequities that cost U.S. producers and service providers $379 billion a year. The goal of U.S. post-World War II trade agreements, such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Trade Organization, was to lower ... [full story]

President George W. Bush has pushed to expand the scope of executive authority in unprecedented and often reckless fashion. From decreeing the United States could detain anyone anywhere in the world without due process, to using "signing statements" as a policy line-item veto on major legislation, to unilaterally setting up a covert, quite possibly illegal mass surveillance system, the Bush White House's assault on convention has been relentless. Nevertheless, even by this administration's standards, the ... [full story]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, in an opinion on so-called issue ads, has done more than potentially gut a key provision of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. The court imperils a measure pending in the state Assembly that would make such ads in state campaigns subject to disclosure and spending rules that candidates they attack must abide by. The 5-4 ruling came in a case involving Wisconsin Right to Life. About three years ago, ... [full story]

On Aug. 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton set the modern record for insipid rationalizations by a government official, telling a grand jury investigating his relationship with Monica Lewinsky that "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." We never thought we'd see that record challenged, but lo, now comes Vice President Dick Cheney claiming he's not a member of the executive branch of government. This is the same Dick Cheney who threatened ... [full story]

We're having trouble wrapping our feeble minds around this: A study of Norwegian men revealed that the firstborn are more intelligent by a couple of IQ points than their siblings. This is something folks keeping track of Nobel Prize and National Merit scholarship winners have long noticed. The firstborn dominate here. We say "feeble" minds because seven of 11 members of this Editorial Board are not firstborn. We will, of course, immediately start deferring on ... [full story]

The U.S. Supreme Court this week issued two rulings on speech issues and got both cases mostly right, but could have done better. Incredibly, in a nation whose fundamental charter contains the words "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech," it is a criminal offense for corporations, unions or interest groups such as Right to Life or the American Civil Liberties Union to speak freely in the form of paid advertising about ... [full story]

An estimated 5,000 lynchings took place during the Jim Crow and civil rights eras. Most went unsolved, but some of the people responsible for those and other horrific race murders are still alive. There is still time to hold them accountable. That's the idea behind the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives on a 422 to 2 vote but has since stalled in the Senate. The ... [full story]

It's bewildering that the Supreme Court's decision Monday to strike down a key provision of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law is being hailed in some quarters as a victory for free speech. The speech in question is contained in broadcast ads, which can cost upward of several hundred thousand dollars a minute. This kind of speech is absolutely essential to winning elections, but it is free only if you can afford it, which is not ... [full story]

So far, so good. The bipartisan immigration bill inched forward Tuesday when a majority of senators voted to revive the legislation and begin debating amendments. It is expected that, by Thursday, another vote will be held - this one to close the debate entirely and put the measure to a vote. As it stands, the outcome is too close to call. Yet supporters have reason to be optimistic. But what if? What if the Senate ... [full story]

Most of official Washington had gone home Monday night when Sen. Richard G. Lugar, R-Ind., made an unannounced 50-minute speech on the floor of the Senate. In years to come, it may be remembered as the moment when America's tragic misadventure in Iraq began to turn in a positive direction. Lugar, a 31-year Senate veteran, arguably is its most respected voice on foreign affairs. On Monday, he broke with his president and the leader of ... [full story]