Articles by Charlotte Greene

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...

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...

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...

The USPS Voter List Rule Fight: Can Washington Make States Hand Over Election Records?

A constitutional tug-of-war is hiding inside what sounds like a routine administrative move: the U.S. Postal Service has finalized a rule that ties certain mail ballot handling to whether a state provides USPS with specific voter information and mailing identifiers. Supporters describe the rule as...

Second Circuit: You Can Film Police in Public

If you have ever wondered, “Am I allowed to record the police from the sidewalk?” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has given a clearer answer for people living in New York, Connecticut, and Vermont: yes. The First Amendment protects recording law enforcement activity in public when...

The Most Talkative Justice, and Why It Matters

When the Supreme Court hears a case, we often picture the big moment as oral argument , the public hour where lawyers and justices volley questions back and forth. It is the most visible part of the Court’s work, and it is also the easiest part to measure. So here is the headline fact: by word...

Mangione Pleads Guilty Federally, Then Tries to Halt New York Murder Case

Luigi Mangione’s federal guilty plea in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has immediately put his separate Manhattan murder case in jeopardy. The reason is New York’s double-jeopardy law , which can bar a second prosecution when the cases are tied to the same criminal act or...

Neil Gorsuch Is the Key to This Supreme Court

When people try to make sense of the Supreme Court today, they often start with the chief justice, or with the Court’s headline decisions. That is understandable. But if you want a clearer picture of why this Court keeps moving in the directions it does, it helps to focus on one particular justice:...

Mangione Plea Raises Double Jeopardy Fight in New York

When people hear “double jeopardy,” they often think it is a simple rule: the government only gets one try. In real life, it can be more complicated because the United States has overlapping criminal systems, including federal court and state court. That overlap is now being tested after Luigi...

How the Executive Branch Cancels Visas

The State Department says it has revoked more than 175,000 visas since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025 . In its public statement, the Department described revocations involving people who “ violated the terms of their visas, committed crimes, called for violence against U.S....

Can a Court Order a Security Clearance Restored?

A former Secretary of the Air Force is preparing to take his security-clearance dispute to court, and the legal question underneath it is one the Constitution keeps bringing us back to: who controls access to the nation’s secrets , and how far judges can go when the executive branch says “no.”...

Can Gun Makers Be Sued for a “No-Trigger” Discharge?

When people think about “gun rights,” they usually picture laws passed by legislatures: bans, permits, waiting periods, and background checks. But sometimes the Constitution shows up in a place that feels more everyday and more personal: a product liability lawsuit, filed by someone who says a...

Justice Alito Says He’s Staying

For a few weeks this summer, one question seemed to hover over the Supreme Court like humidity in Washington: Is Justice Samuel Alito about to retire? Justice Alito has now answered that question, at least for the near term. In an interview conducted in his chambers, he put it plainly: “Obviously...

Can Parents Demand Bathroom Policy Answers From Schools?

When parents ask a school a direct question about privacy and parental notice, they usually expect a direct answer. A new federal lawsuit out of North Carolina turns on what the district will say, and what it says it cannot say. The case was filed by Brandon Matthews , a father with a fourth-grade...