Articles by Charlotte Greene

Navy Seizes Iranian Ship in the Strait: War Powers and the Escalation Risk

The Strait of Hormuz is not just a narrow stretch of water. It is a pressure point where global commerce, regional rivalries, and U.S. constitutional limits collide. On April 19, 2026, U.S. Central Command released video showing the destroyer USS Spruance firing on an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel...

When Schools Keep Gender Identity Secret From Parents

Across the country, families are learning a hard civics lesson: the most emotional school debates are often the ones with the most complicated lines of authority. Who decides what a school can keep from parents about a child’s gender identity? When does student privacy matter most? And where,...

SCOTUS Curbs Climate Lawsuits Against Oil Companies

A growing number of climate activists and state and local governments have tried to use the courts to pressure oil and gas companies, not only through regulation, but through lawsuits that seek massive financial liability. The basic theory is straightforward: if a judge or jury can be persuaded...

When a Judge Bans You From Saying Someone’s Name

It is hard to think of a more sweeping speech restriction than this: a court order telling a person to stop “publicly writing, printing, or speaking” another person’s name. That is not a metaphor. It is the kind of command that reaches into ordinary civic life, where we argue about...

Trump’s Yemen Strikes and the War Powers Question

A naval blockade sounds like a Cold War era phrase, but constitutionally it raises a very modern question: how far can a president go, on their own, before the United States is effectively at war? This question lands differently when the news is not hypothetical. President Donald Trump has ordered...

Virginia Gun Sales Spike Ahead of New Controls

One of the easiest ways to see how law influences everyday behavior is to watch what happens right before a rule changes, or might. In Virginia, gun retailers say that is exactly what is happening now: as a slate of proposed gun controls moves through the legislative process, customers are rushing...

When the government locks someone up, our constitutional tradition expects more than a label. Recent detention litigation in multiple jurisdictions has drawn fresh attention to a recurring issue in immigration law: when, if ever, the government can require detention automatically under certain...

WATCH: Rex Heuermann Pleads Guilty to Killing 8 Women

Rex Heuermann admitted in court that he killed eight women as he changed his plea to guilty on April 9, 2026, in the Gilgo Beach murders case in New York. For many people following a case like this, a guilty plea can feel like the end of the story. In reality, it is more like a hinge in the...

FISA 702 and Warrants for Americans’ Data

Every few years, Congress faces the same uncomfortable question: how much surveillance power should the federal government have in the name of foreign intelligence, and what protections do Americans get when their messages get caught in the net? That question is back because Section 702 of the...

When Schools Punish Off-Campus Snapchat Speech

Public schools have real responsibilities: keeping students safe, maintaining order, and protecting learning time. But the First Amendment still matters, especially when a student’s speech happens off campus, in a private message, or otherwise outside school programs. A recent federal case out of...

Can the President Ignore Presidential Records Rules?

Most of us only notice federal recordkeeping when something has gone wrong. A missing email. A deleted text. A phone call no one seems able to document. But records are not a minor administrative detail. They are the evidence that oversight and later review depend on. Without them, subpoenas,...

When “Unhinged” Becomes a Constitutional Argument

On Easter morning, President Donald Trump posted a message that ricocheted across social media: profane, belligerent, and aimed at Iran. At the time of writing, a familiar constitutional phrase is trending in the public conversation: the 25th Amendment . Some commentators and lawmakers did not...

USPS Weighs Letting Americans Mail Handguns

The U.S. Postal Service is preparing to make a major change to its firearm mailing standards: a proposed rule that would let “lawful handguns to be mailed” under terms similar to those that already apply to rifles and shotguns. If finalized, it would mark a significant shift in how a federally...

Trump Removes Attorney General Pam Bondi, Names Todd Blanche Acting AG

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Attorney General Pam Bondi is leaving the Justice Department, a sudden shakeup that places Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in the role of acting attorney general. Trump framed the change as a transition, writing that Bondi would be moving to “a...

Trump Officials Born to Immigrant Parents

When people debate birthright citizenship , the conversation can feel abstract, like a courtroom exercise about commas and clauses. But the Constitution’s promise of citizenship at birth has always had a very practical side: it determines who is recognized as an American from day one, including...

Judge Halts White House Ballroom Until Congress Authorizes Funding

A federal judge has ordered construction on the proposed White House ballroom to pause unless and until Congress authorizes the project, turning a high-profile renovation fight into a civics lesson about who controls federal building decisions and, more importantly, federal dollars. The order...

Hegseth Lifts Suspension of Army Pilots After Kid Rock Flyover

A brief military spectacle outside a celebrity’s home turned into a small but revealing lesson in how the armed forces balance discipline, judgment, and public perception. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the Army pilots who carried out a helicopter fly-by near musician Kid Rock’s...

When ‘Welfare Checks’ Skip Due Process

A federal jury in Texas has approved damages for a family who says two school district police officers took their 14-year-old daughter from her home after deciding, wrongly, that she had been “abandoned.” The case is not just about a bad call in a tense moment. Jurors concluded the officers...

ICE at Airports After TSA Pay Returns: A Civil Liberties Question

Airport security lines have been the most visible sign of the ongoing Department of Homeland Security funding breakdown. But a quieter change may outlast the paycheck crisis: federal immigration agents were brought into airports to help cover staffing gaps, and the administration is now signaling...

‘No Kings’ Protesters Add ‘Thy Immigrant’ Verse to ‘America the Beautiful’

On Saturday, demonstrators gathered in Washington, D.C. as part of the “No Kings” protest movement, rewriting a familiar American hymn to include a striking addition: a verse that inserted the words “thy immigrant.” The rally came as tensions over immigration enforcement and a prolonged...