blogging the beltway

As the Republican primary race drags on, candidates have repeatedly made an issue out of President Obama’s faith — or lack thereof, according to some campaign-trail rhetoric. “I think there is in this country a war on religion,” Mitt Romney told Milwaukee supporters on Monday in response to a question about the president’s mandating that…

Last month was a mixed bag for Mitt Romney, what with all those Southern primaries (and, subsequently, all those losses to Rick Santorum). But April’s electoral landscape looks much better for Romney, starting with the trio of contests that he won on Tuesday night in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Wisconsin. The victories push Romney past…

After reviewing President Obama’s budget for the fiscal year 2013, which he released in February, various lawmakers released alternative versions. None of the proposals stand any chance of passing in a split Congress, and many have already been rejected, but as symbolic documents they’re a chance to put fiscal ideals on the record. Here’s a…

In March the U.S. Department of Education released the Civil Rights Data Collection, a self-reported survey of more than 72,000 schools that serve 85 percent of American students. Among the tool’s findings is that African-American and Latino students receive harsher school discipline than their white counterparts. Black students are more than three times as likely,…

In December The Root profiled the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. The organization connects corporate leaders with state lawmakers to draft “model bills” for legislators to replicate, introduce across the country and ultimately pass into law, state by state. Its corporate members include ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart and Koch Industries. ALEC claims that…

Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin had already been confronted with their worst nightmare in February when their 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, was killed. Over the month since, their personal trauma has intensified as George Zimmerman, the man who shot the unarmed teen, has not been arrested. Meanwhile, their son’s school records (such as a suspension…

On Monday the Supreme Court began hearing arguments in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform law. The main argument is against the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, which requires most Americans to buy health insurance by 2014 or pay a fine. Opponents say that Congress has no authority to enforce such…

Just when it looked as if Rick Santorum’s campaign was losing steam, after suffering losses to Mitt Romney in the recent Puerto Rico and Illinois primaries, he enjoyed a hefty rebound in Louisiana. He trounced the competition and was announced as the projected winner with around 40 percent of the vote as soon as polls…

On Friday morning, President Obama weighed in for the first time on the Trayvon Martin shooting. Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, the president first insisted that he would not comment too specifically, to avoid impairing the investigation. Yet he stressed that it is “absolutely imperative” that Martin’s death be investigated. The president’s biggest…

Editor’s note, June 28, 2012: With news that the Supreme Court upheld key provisions of the Affordable Care Act, The Root has decided to re-run this blog posting where we met people who are affected by the health care law. At an Iowa town hall last summer, an audience member prodded President Obama for failing…