Articles by Charlotte Greene

Can Zoning Block a Prayer Grotto?

Most of the time, zoning fights are intensely local. A setback line here, a conditional-use permit there, and neighbors arguing about traffic or noise. But every so often, a small land-use dispute turns into a Supreme Court test of how federal law protects religious practice on real property. That...

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...

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...

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...

Supreme Court Freezes Missouri’s 2025 House Map for 2026

Missouri will not be using its newer 2025 congressional map in the 2026 election. In a brief, unsigned order issued Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court directed the state to run the 2026 congressional election under the boundaries from Missouri’s 2022 map instead. For everyday voters, the practical...

What It Means When the White House Blocks a News Outlet From Air Force One

When the White House decides a particular news outlet will not travel on Air Force One , it feels like a modern version of an old problem: the government controlling who gets close enough to ask questions. This week, the administration signaled that CNN would not be part of the press traveling with...

Trump Asks Supreme Court to Review Bond Hearings for Some ICE Detainees

One of the easiest ways to misunderstand immigration detention is to assume it works like the criminal justice system, with quick bail decisions and a clear end date. In reality, many immigration cases move slowly, and some people are held in custody while their removal cases proceed. Now the Trump...

SCOTUS Clears Trump Voter-Purge Database

The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to proceed with a new election-related use of a federal citizenship verification system , clearing the way for states to request access to data that could be used to identify and remove alleged noncitizens from voter rolls . For readers who...

The Supreme Court’s Emergency Docket, and Why Justice Jackson Says It’s Corrosive

The Supreme Court has always had a fast lane for true emergencies. The trouble, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sees it, is that the fast lane is starting to look like a main highway. Speaking at the University of the District of Columbia on Thursday, Jackson warned that the Court’s increasing...

Murphy’s “Regulate the Internet” Remark and the First Amendment

When lawmakers talk about “regulating the internet,” it can sound like a simple fix for a complicated civic problem. But constitutionally, it is anything but simple. Sen. Chris Murphy recently argued on the “I’ve Had It” podcast that government should take on projects that reduce loneliness and...

Trump’s White House Press Ban and the First Amendment

President Donald Trump announced he was banning three news organizations, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, from White House access “effective immediately.” In the same post, he argued that outlets should not be able to “constantly write or report fiction and lies” when covering the President, the Trump...

SCOTUS Blocks Trump’s Mail-Ballot Rule Before Midterms

The Supreme Court has stepped in, but in a quieter way than many people expect. Instead of issuing a sweeping ruling about mail-in voting, the justices refused to pause a lower-court order that blocks parts of new U.S. Postal Service rules for handling election ballots through the mail before the...

Grassley Emails Raise New Questions About FBI Case-Picking and Musk

Sen. Chuck Grassley has released a new batch of unclassified FBI emails tied to the Crossfire Hurricane era, and one detail is already drawing attention: a former FBI special agent’s written push to open a criminal investigation into Elon Musk connected to Musk’s activities while overseeing the...

25 Years After 9/11: Citizenship, Unity, and the Constitution

Twenty-five years after Sept. 11, 2001, the phrase “never forget” still lands with force. But as a librarian, I think the more useful question is: what exactly are we promising not to forget ? We can remember the date and still miss the lesson. We can remember the politics and still lose sight of...

Judge Bars Alleged Retaliation Against an ICE Watcher

A federal judge in Ohio has issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) aimed at a narrow but fundamental constitutional principle: government officials cannot use intimidation or retaliation to punish someone for protected speech. The case involves Sean Moorman, a volunteer “ICE watcher” who...

Why Neil Gorsuch Matters (Even If You Can’t Pick Him Out)

If you only catch the Supreme Court in quick headline photos, Neil Gorsuch can blend in. He is not the justice most people picture first. He does not dominate the public imagination the way some of his colleagues do. But the Constitution is often shaped by the justice who writes the crispest rule,...

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...

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...

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...

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...