Ron Elving

It was another big news week in Washington, with several key Supreme Court decisions and Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement.

Back then, Mitch McConnell boasted: "One of my proudest moments was when I looked Barack Obama in the eye and I said, 'Mr. President, you will not fill the Supreme Court vacancy.' "

With Supreme Justice Anthony Kennedy retiring in July, the prospect of President Trump appointing a second justice has Democrats and Republicans thinking of next steps.

Far from subsiding, the political animosities stirred by the tumultuous presidential cycle of 2015-16 grow more disruptive, remaking both our major parties and altering our public life as a nation.

The overwhelming news of the week begins at the Southern border of the United States: 2,300 children separated from their parents as they crossed to seek asylum.

President Trump's meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is not the first history-making presidential summit with a foreign leader. There have been several, beginning with President John F. Kennedy's meeting with Soviet statesman Nikita Khrushchev in 1961.

The phrase "historic summit," language inherited from the late 20th century, has been used many times in recent decades, including related to President Trump's meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

A contentious G-7 and developments in the Mueller investigation have rounded out the political news of the week.

Like many an owners' manual, the Constitution doesn't always cover all the bases. A constitutional crisis arises at a moment when the Constitution is not enough to resolve a question or a conflict.

Richard Goodwin served as a speechwriter for President Lyndon Johnson and was the man responsible for the Johnson's "Great Society" speech. Goodwin died Sunday at 86.

President Trump began using his pardon power the first summer he was in office, and he has hinted at using them in a variety of sensitive cases that are now pending.

As usual, it's been a busy week for political news: another school shooting, reflections on the Mueller investigation, Title X funding and the state of the GOP.

Congress has many rules and precedents that are documented on paper. But what about those traditions and folkways that persist unwritten?

The Trump administration could be trumpeting good employment news and progress with North Korea but it keeps stepping on its tail as it responds to the president's legal problems.

Throughout his life, McCain has been stubbornly individual, at times cantankerous and even exasperating to friend and foe alike, relishing his political persona as "The Maverick."

President Trump tweeted the North Korean news that it was suspending nuclear tests was "big progress." Agreeing to meet with Kim Jong Un was a gamble for Trump, but so far it seems to be paying off.

We look at how U.S. lawmakers are responding to the attacks launched on Syria overnight.

We have the latest from the U.S. military about the airstrikes in Syria.

NPR's Ron Elving says the former FBI director's new memoir is unlikely to convert the committed partisans on either side. Instead, it may well cause further entrenchment.

If being speaker of the House remains the most coveted job on Capitol Hill, it has also become the most frustrating. And to be frank, it's more likely to crash a career than to cap it these days.