A federal appeals court ruling last week that people under restraining orders for domestic violence cannot be prohibited from having guns was utterly divorced from reality even if it also was utterly predictable. The U.S. Supreme Court, in setting a standard on gun laws that relies on the trendy right-wing legal theory of constitutional originalism, all but guaranteed that lower courts would begin dismantling reasonable modern laws based on 18th century legal and societal standards. The appeals court’s dangerous ruling is merely the logical result of the high court’s obsession with dragging America’s laws back to a largely imagined past.

Although the last few years have been difficult for most Americans, there still is much to love about the country President Abraham Lincoln called “the last best hope of earth” and President Ronald Reagan labeled “the shining city on a hill.”

With a total of 517,000 new jobs created last month and total employment estimates revised up, the country now has the lowest unemployment rate in more than half a century.

For many people, the most notable date in February is Valentine’s Day. But for those familiar with the history of rock music, two others stand out: Feb. 3, 1959 — “the day the music died,” as Don McLean described it in his 1971 hit “American Pie” — and Feb. 9, 1964, when the Beatles made their first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

On May 11, the COVID-19 public health emergency officially comes to a close in the U.S., and with it comes an end to largely free access to all related healthcare. House Republicans might want to declare it over this instant, but a cushion is needed — and this one might not even be enough — to ensure everyone from insurers to drug companies to each of us knows what the unwinding means.

Most wealthy countries provide workers with paid time off when they become parents, fall ill or need to care for loved ones. It’s one of the great no-brainers of public policy: It benefits newborns, families and the entire economy.

Although February is the shortest calendar month of the year, it has served as one of the most significant months for momentous musical events — both happy and sad.

You’d think that people would have learned their lesson after years of financial industry gimmickry, corporate tax avoidance and mistreatment of workers.

When classified documents turned up in President Joe Biden’s former office, his Delaware home and the garage housing his Corvette, the political impact was predictable. Republicans gleefully accused Biden of the same offense that prompted the FBI to raid former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate last August.

As our nation bumps up hard against a national debt north of $31 trillion, let’s start with the obvious: Our expenditures are greater than our revenue. And while this isn’t the crisis that Republicans imagine when a Democrat is in the White House, common sense suggests that bringing expenditures and revenue into closer alignment would be a good thing.

International efforts aimed at reviving the Iranian nuclear deal were largely stalled in 2022, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s remarks on Tuesday that the United States no longer considers reaching an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program a priority paint a gloomier picture for the prospects of the multilateral agreement.

Whether President Joe Biden’s misguided plan to forgive some $400 billion in federal student-loan debt goes forward will ultimately be up to the Supreme Court. For now, there’s more the federal government should be doing to rein in the costs of higher education — and thus reduce how much students borrow in the first place.

Old habits die hard, as the saying goes. But myths and legends do, too, as Hunter S. Thompson famously said.

Bipartisanship is the solution to some problems, but it also helped create them. On the one hand, if you are a classical liberal with a strong preference for fiscal responsibility, bipartisanship generally gets you nowhere. Big Capitol Hill deals mean big spending. On the other hand, the only path to reforming the drivers of our current and future debt or making other important changes is through a bipartisan agreement.

Ideas that start on the progressive fringes have a way of becoming government policy these days, as President Biden’s $400 billion student loan cancellation shows. Lo, Democrats in Congress are now pressing the President to impose rent control nationwide.

Defense spending is vital to the ensure the nation’s security. But that doesn’t mean the Pentagon should be above budget scrutiny. Far from it, as a recent audit reveals.

Thanks to El Niño, the world is about to experience something like time travel to the year 2050. It won’t be pleasant. But rather than devolve into panic at the grim climate future it portends, we should use it as a warning about the need to do more to slow global warming.