The U.S. Constitution

Trump Administration Sends $500 ObamaCare Refund Checks to Nearly 1 Million People

The Trump administration says it is sending one-time $500 refund checks to people who bought health insurance through the federal Affordable Care Act marketplace and were overcharged through costs tied to operating HealthCare.gov . The checks are being issued by the U.S. Treasury to more than...

Trump’s USPS Voter ID Idea Was Bigger Than an Executive Order

Strip away the slogans about “election integrity,” and a basic question is left: who sets the operating rules for American elections, the states and their local officials, or the president through federal machinery? That question was put under real stress by a 2026 push from the Trump White House...

Why the FAA Was Chronically Understaffed and What Record Hiring Means

Air traffic control is one of those federal jobs you almost never think about until it falters. When it works, it is invisible. When it does not, you notice the strain, especially in a system that has spent years short of its own staffing goals. That is the context for a striking milestone: the...

What a DOJ Criminal Referral Means for a Former Federal Prosecutor

A “criminal referral” sounds like a verdict. It isn’t. It is closer to a knock on the government’s door that says: you should look at this. That distinction matters, especially when the person named is a former federal prosecutor. Prosecutors are representatives of the United States, and the...

What the Election-Crime Cases and SAVE Act Fight Are Really About

Two arguments have been talking past each other for years, and this week’s headlines just made the cross-talk louder. On one side: a run of federal cases accusing noncitizens of registering and voting. On the other: elected officials insisting the problem is either “extremely rare” or flatly...

The Comstock Act and Mail-Order Abortion Pills

When people hear “Comstock Act,” they often assume it is a relic: a Victorian-era morality statute, technically still on the books but with little practical relevance today. But the law is back in the spotlight after the Restoration of America Foundation urged Attorney General Todd Blanche to use...

Which States Lead on Today’s Biggest Education Policy Fights

[content] Public education is where America’s biggest cultural arguments keep finding a stage, from transparency demands to disputes over identity and curriculum. A first-of-its-kind, 50-state ranking is now putting numbers to those fights by grading every state and Washington, D.C., across the...

Why the Senate Stock-Trading Vote Got Stuck

When Americans say they want Congress to “clean up Washington,” they often mean something very specific: stop letting lawmakers write the rules and trade on the information those rules create. That is why proposals to limit members of Congress from trading individual stocks tend to draw attention....

Why State Voter Files Are Not “Just Public Records”

Voter registration records sit in a complicated place. States often let the public view or purchase parts of the voter file, but those same states also treat the information as something that can create serious privacy and security problems if it spreads too broadly. That push and pull is why...

Can a President Nationalize U.S. Elections?

It is a tempting idea in moments of political anxiety: if elections feel chaotic, why not put them under one national set of rules and one national administrator, the president? People sometimes call that “nationalizing” elections, as if voting could be folded into the executive branch the way a...

Can a President Cancel the Midterms?

Every few election cycles, the same anxious question comes roaring back into American political life: can the president just cancel the midterms? The legal answer is refreshingly plain. No. Midterm elections are not a discretionary event the executive branch can switch off like a light. Federal...

Should BB Guns Be Treated Like Firearms?

Most Americans learn the word firearm the same way they learn the word speech . We assume we know what it means until the law forces us to define it. That definitional pressure is back, this time aimed at a category many people file under “kid stuff” or “backyard plinking”: BB guns and pellet guns....

Flydubai Pilot Allegedly Stabbed Co-Pilot in Hijacking Attempt on Tel Aviv Flight

A Flydubai passenger flight headed from Dubai to Tel Aviv diverted and landed in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday after Israeli officials said one of the pilots attempted to hijack the aircraft, setting off a violent confrontation in the cockpit. Flydubai later confirmed there had been an "altercation" on...

Maine’s 72-Hour Waiting Period Heads to the Supreme Court

A multistate coalition led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up Beckwith v. Frey , a challenge to Maine’s 72-hour waiting period for firearm purchases . The coalition filed an amicus brief urging the justices to grant certiorari. The filing comes...

Attempted Hijacking on a Tel Aviv Flight: What Happens Next

An attempted in-flight hijacking is aviation’s nightmare scenario because it compresses decisions into minutes. On September 30, 2026, that fear became very real on a Flydubai passenger flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, when Israeli officials said one of the pilots stabbed his co-pilot and attempted...

Can a Special Counsel Seize a Senator’s Phone Records?

There is a particular kind of constitutional alarm bell that rings when prosecutors go digging through a member of Congress’s communications records, especially when the member is not notified at the time because a third party is gagged from saying anything. That alarm is sounding now because Sen....

Why Alito’s Recusal Matters in the Supreme Court Climate Case

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from a closely watched case over climate change liability less than a week before oral arguments were scheduled to begin. That is what happened in Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County , a dispute over whether Boulder,...

Florida Audit Fuels Moskowitz-Singer Clash Over COVID Relief Oversight

Federal relief money is designed to move fast in an emergency. But once the checks clear, the question shifts to oversight: who tracked where the dollars went, and what safeguards were actually in place? That debate has become a campaign flashpoint in one of the country’s most competitive...

Can DEI Policies Be Challenged in Court? What the Seattle Case Means

A unanimous federal appeals court ruled Monday that a jury should decide whether Seattle’s DEI initiatives created a racially hostile work environment for a White employee, while emphasizing that federal anti-discrimination law protects workers regardless of race. The three-judge panel did not rule...

Due Process and Second-Home Property Taxes

Property taxes feel like the most ordinary kind of government power. A bill arrives. A due date follows. Life moves on. But when a city rolls out a new surcharge aimed at second homes, ordinary turns into something sharper. A government notice can carry real consequences. And that is where the...