The U.S. Constitution

Guillotine Near the Capitol: What Police Can Search, Seize, and Charge

A strange object in public view can trigger very ordinary legal rules. This week, U.S. Capitol Police arrested a man after officers say they spotted a guillotine in the bed of a pickup truck parked illegally along East Capitol Street, not far from the U.S. Capitol, the Supreme Court, and the...

Florida Blocks TANF Cash on EBT for Tattoos, Theme Parks, Vapes, and More

Florida just drew a much brighter line around a familiar question: When the government gives cash assistance, does it get to decide what “counts” as an acceptable purchase? The state has updated the rules for its Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) program to block recipients from using cash benefits...

Court: Parents Can’t Lose Gun Rights Over Daughter’s Alleged Drawings

When people talk about the Second Amendment, the conversation often jumps straight to the big questions: bans, permits, and what the Supreme Court has said. But many real-life disputes are smaller and more personal, like what happens when police decide a household feels “volatile.” This week, a...

Supreme Court Stay Upends Mail-Ballot Injunction Fight

When the Supreme Court hits pause , it rarely feels like a simple pause. It changes the posture of a case, the leverage of the parties, and sometimes the behavior of the judge who thought she had the last word. That is the story behind this week’s whiplash in the litigation over new federal...

Appeals court rejects McIver’s immunity bid in ICE case

Members of Congress get real constitutional armor when they legislate. They do not get a free pass to do anything, anywhere, so long as they describe it as “oversight.” That is the basic premise behind a new federal appeals court decision declining to toss most of the criminal case against Rep....

A Supreme Court Justice Called It a ‘Kafkaesque Nightmare’

When a Supreme Court justice reaches for the phrase “Kafkaesque nightmare” , it is usually a signal that the normal tools of legal reasoning are colliding with something that feels both bewildering and hard to escape. That is exactly what happened this week, after an emergency Supreme Court...

Can States Ban Welfare Cash for Tattoos, Vapes, and Video Games?

You can feel the instinct behind policies like this: if public dollars are meant to keep families afloat, the state should be able to say they cannot be used for tattoos, vapes, theme park tickets, or a new game console. But here is the necessary clarification up front: despite a lot of...

What Power Does a State Attorney General Have Over Sheriff ICE Operations?

When immigration enforcement shows up on a county road, it can look simple: a deputy pulls a driver over, checks identity, calls ICE, and someone winds up in federal custody. But constitutionally, that one traffic stop can involve at least three governments at once: a local sheriff’s office, a...

Can a Member of Congress Be Prosecuted? Legislative Immunity Explained

Members of Congress write laws. They investigate. They hold hearings that can damage reputations. They give speeches that ignite national arguments. So it is natural to assume they are insulated from ordinary criminal prosecution. The Constitution does give them a kind of immunity. But it is...

A Justice Called It a ‘Kafkaesque Nightmare’

There are phrases you expect to see in a Supreme Court opinion: jurisdiction , standing , irreparable harm , maybe even equity . “Kafkaesque nightmare” is not usually on the list. And yet on Monday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson put those words in writing, in a dissent tied to the Court’s emergency...

McIver’s Immunity Claim Takes a Hit in Newark ICE Case

There is a question I used to put to my civics students when we hit the “Speech or Debate” Clause in Article I: What, exactly, counts as doing your job in Congress ? This week, a federal appeals court handed down a blunt answer in the case of Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey. If the government’s...

3D-Printed Guns and the Law’s Cat-and-Mouse Problem

There is a familiar American rhythm to new technology. It expands individual power. Government tries to fence it in. People immediately look for the gaps in the fence. 3D-printed guns are living inside that rhythm right now. States are experimenting with a new idea: do not just punish illegal...

Judge Denies Minnesota Bid to Keep ICE Agent Christian Castro in Texas Jail

Minnesota’s effort to keep ICE agent Christian Castro locked up in Texas hit a wall this week, after a federal judge declined to step in with an emergency order. The ruling denies federal intervention, meaning Castro could be released when his Texas detention period expires Thursday if no rendition...

A ‘Kafkaesque Nightmare’ at the Supreme Court

When a sitting Supreme Court justice reaches for the phrase “Kafkaesque nightmare,” you should not treat it as rhetorical garnish. That is a flare shot into the sky. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson used those words in a dissent tied to the Court’s latest emergency decision involving mail-in voting...

Judge Denies Minnesota Bid to Keep ICE Agent Christian Castro Jailed in Texas

Minnesota asked a federal court to step in during an extradition standoff with Texas. In an emergency request, Minnesota asked a federal judge to stop Cameron County, Texas, from releasing ICE agent Christian Castro from jail while Texas decides whether to send him to Minnesota to face felony...

ABC Sues the FCC: Can Regulators Pressure What You Watch?

When people think about the First Amendment, they often picture a clear dividing line: the government cannot censor speech, and the press is free to publish what it chooses. Broadcast television sits in a more complicated place. Local stations operate using federal licenses, and those licenses are...

Warnock’s 3-step power plan and the constitutional choke points

Sen. Raphael Warnock has sketched a three-step playbook for what Democrats should do if they claw back congressional power: investigate Southern redistricting , add new states , and push a constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to vote . It is an ambitious sequence, and it is also a...

A Justice Called It a ‘Kafkaesque Nightmare’

When Supreme Court writing turns literary, it is usually because something has gone off the rails. On Monday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson used a phrase that had never appeared in a Supreme Court justice’s dissenting opinion before: a “Kafkaesque nightmare.” She was describing the procedural maze...

Georgia Redistricting Case Revived: What the Appeals Court Ruling Means

Redistricting lawsuits can feel abstract until you translate them into the question underneath them: who gets a fair chance to elect representatives, and under what rules ? On August 23, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit sent key parts of Georgia’s 2021 redistricting...

Supreme Court Mail-In Voting Ruling Explained: What Changes Now

Mail-in voting sounds like a simple administrative choice. Put a ballot in an envelope, mail it, count it. But when the Supreme Court issues an emergency order and a state signals more litigation, you are no longer talking about envelopes. You are talking about who gets to write the rules of...