The U.S. Constitution

Minnesota’s “Transgender Dolls” and the Fight Over School Control

Minnesota is headed toward a familiar American dispute, but with key details still unresolved: what adult professionals in public-facing settings may introduce to very young children, and what parents can realistically avoid if the message is offered through an educator or a school-adjacent...

Judge Preserves Ethiopian TPS Protections After Supreme Court Ruling

When the Supreme Court narrows the ability of lower courts to block an immigration policy, many people assume that is the end of the story. But immigration cases often have a second chapter, because the legal theories can change even when the underlying human stakes do not. That is what we are...

Asylum Interviews and Direct Referrals: What the Shift Would Mean

Asylum law has a familiar rhythm in the public imagination. You apply. You sit for an interview with a federal officer. You wait. And then, if the government says no, you ask a judge to review it. But that “first step” is not guaranteed by the Constitution, and it is not the only way the system...

When State Tuition Laws Hit Federal Limits

States often describe immigration as a federal job until a local policy goal puts them in the middle of it. That tension shows up again and again in a familiar fight: can a state let certain undocumented students pay in-state tuition or receive state financial aid? The constitutional engine behind...

Can a Federal Judge Block Deportations After the Supreme Court Weighs In?

When you see headlines saying a federal judge “blocked deportations” even after the Supreme Court weighed in, it can sound like an open act of defiance. Constitutionally, it is usually something more ordinary and more confusing: different courts acting at different procedural moments, sometimes...

Can a President Ban Mail-In Voting?

When courts block a presidential executive order aimed at mail-in voting, it is tempting to treat it like a political headline. Constitutionally, it is something more basic: a reminder that American elections are not run by presidential decree. The question underneath the news is simple and...

What Is TPS and Can a Federal Judge Defy the Supreme Court?

Temporary Protected Status , or TPS, has a name that sounds like a constitutional guarantee. It is not. TPS is a statutory tool Congress created and the executive branch administers, with federal courts acting as referees when people argue the government did not follow the law. TPS and DACA are...

Can a President Order Signs Outside the Smithsonian?

The headline version of this story is simple: for example, imagine a president issues an executive order directing executive-branch officials to place signs on federally managed walkways near Smithsonian museums , pointing visitors to a White House report criticizing how American history is...

What Is the War Powers Resolution?

The Constitution gives Americans a comforting civics myth: Congress declares war, the president fights it. In real life, the order is often reversed. Presidents initiate, Congress reacts, and everyone argues about what the Founders “really meant.” This article was prompted by a familiar kind of...

Trump’s Under-the-Radar Deportation Court Gambit

Some government actions are loud on purpose. Others slip by quietly, wrapped in procedural language that feels too technical to worry about. This week’s immigration news falls squarely into the second category. The Justice Department has taken steps to activate a special deportation tribunal...

House panel subpoenas three nonprofits in Singham funding probe

The House Ways and Means Committee has escalated an investigation into what it describes as a far-left influence-and-funding network, issuing subpoenas to three nonprofits after Chairman Rep. Jason Smith said earlier requests yielded no responsive records. Smith, a Missouri Republican, is focusing...

Trump’s Under-the-Radar Deportation Court Play

Most immigration crackdowns are loud on purpose. Raids. Press conferences. Big numbers. But some of the most unsettling moves are the ones that happen quietly, on paperwork most people will never see. This month, the Trump administration took a step that should make anyone who cares about...

Answering the Door Armed: The Fourth Amendment Trap

There are constitutional questions that live comfortably in textbooks, and then there are constitutional questions that show up on your porch, under a flashing blue light, when your heart rate is already climbing. Here is one of those questions: Can you put on a holstered handgun before you answer...

DOJ Targets U.S. Virgin Islands Magazine Ban

When people talk about the Second Amendment, they usually picture a debate playing out in a state legislature or a federal court somewhere on the mainland. This week, that familiar argument landed in a place many Americans rarely think about in constitutional terms: the U.S. Virgin Islands. On...

Home Whiskey, Home Weed, and the Commerce Clause

One of the Constitution’s most practical, day-to-day powers is also one of its most slippery: Congress’s authority “ to regulate Commerce…among the several States .” That short phrase, the Commerce Clause, helps determine what you can buy, sell, ship, grow, brew, and sometimes even what...

Why Discovery Gets Aggressive in Trump’s $10B CBS Lawsuit

When Donald Trump sued CBS for $10 billion over a 60 Minutes segment, the most predictable fight was never going to be about cable-news commentary. It was going to be about proof: if you demand a number that large in a civil case, you invite the other side to ask hard questions about your math. In...

Alien Terrorist Removal Court Explained: Visas, Speech, and Removal Power

Some government powers feel absolute until you look closely at how they are built. The federal government has broad authority over immigration. It can deny visas. It can remove noncitizens. It can treat certain noncitizens as national security threats. But in practice, the executive still has to...

DOJ Religious Liberty Guidance, Explained

When the Department of Justice releases “religious liberty guidance,” it is not passing a new law. It is issuing an internal policy document that tells executive branch lawyers and program officials how DOJ believes the Constitution and federal statutes should be applied before the next lawsuit...

Why SSI Is Suddenly Everywhere: August Dates, New SSA Tools, and a Childhood Disability Fix

Supplemental Security Income is the kind of phrase you usually hear only in a benefits office. Then late July hits, and it turns into kitchen-table questions: When does the check arrive? How do I file? What happens when my child turns 18 on paper? Right now, three SSI storylines are colliding: the...

Are Sanctuary Cities Constitutional?

“Sanctuary city” sounds like a moral label. In court, it is usually something much more technical: a fight over who has to do the work. Immigration law and removal decisions are federal power. But the day-to-day machinery of policing and jail operations is mostly state and local. That tension...