Articles by Charlotte Greene

House panel subpoenas three nonprofits in Singham funding probe

The House Ways and Means Committee has escalated an investigation into what it describes as a far-left influence-and-funding network, issuing subpoenas to three nonprofits after Chairman Rep. Jason Smith said earlier requests yielded no responsive records. Smith, a Missouri Republican, is focusing...

Trump’s Under-the-Radar Deportation Court Play

Most immigration crackdowns are loud on purpose. Raids. Press conferences. Big numbers. But some of the most unsettling moves are the ones that happen quietly, on paperwork most people will never see. This month, the Trump administration took a step that should make anyone who cares about...

DOJ Targets U.S. Virgin Islands Magazine Ban

When people talk about the Second Amendment, they usually picture a debate playing out in a state legislature or a federal court somewhere on the mainland. This week, that familiar argument landed in a place many Americans rarely think about in constitutional terms: the U.S. Virgin Islands. On...

Home Whiskey, Home Weed, and the Commerce Clause

One of the Constitution’s most practical, day-to-day powers is also one of its most slippery: Congress’s authority “ to regulate Commerce…among the several States .” That short phrase, the Commerce Clause, helps determine what you can buy, sell, ship, grow, brew, and sometimes even what you can do...

The Constitution Was Never Meant to Belong to Nine Justices

One of the quietest civic habits Americans have picked up in modern life is this: when a constitutional question gets hard, we treat it like a problem we must ship to Washington and hand to nine people in black robes. Sometimes that habit feels comforting. Courts speak in crisp sentences, issue a...

Court Strikes New Jersey’s AR-15 and Magazine Bans

A federal appeals court has invalidated two of New Jersey’s most prominent gun restrictions: the state’s ban on a broad category of semiautomatic rifles (often labeled “assault firearms”) and its restriction on magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds . The decision came from the U.S. Court...

Can Hawaii’s High Court Defy the U.S. Supreme Court?

When people hear that a state supreme court might “defy” the U.S. Supreme Court , it can sound like a constitutional cliffhanger. In practice, these moments usually revolve around something more specific: a state court signaling it will read the federal Constitution through a distinct local...

When Police Take Your Guns Without a Hearing

When people hear the phrase “red flag” , they often picture a court order. A judge, evidence, a hearing, and a clear set of rules. But in a recent Long Island case, a family says something far less formal happened: police effectively disarmed two licensed gun owners based on a mental health concern...

When Officials Obstruct ICE: What Accountability Looks Like

Courthouses are supposed to be boring in the best way: rules, routines, and predictability. That is why this case has landed with such force. A Wisconsin judge was convicted in federal court of felony obstruction after prosecutors said she deliberately interfered with federal immigration officers...

SCOTUS Sports Ruling Leaves Trans Kids Paying the Price

When the Supreme Court rules, the legal language can feel distant. But for many families with transgender kids, the Court’s June 30 decision hit like a personal announcement over the loudspeaker: you are not eligible. Not here. Not on this team. Not with your friends. Parents described the moment...

Supreme Court: Geofence Warrants Are Fourth Amendment Searches

For years, police have increasingly relied on a powerful shortcut: instead of starting with a suspect, they start with a place and time, then ask a tech company for a list of phones that were there. On Monday, the Supreme Court put a constitutional label on that practice. By a 6-3 vote, the Court...

Supreme Court Lets States Keep Trans Athlete Bans in School Sports

The Supreme Court closed out June with a decision that will reverberate through school athletics. In a 6–3 ruling covering two cases, the Court allowed Idaho and West Virginia to enforce laws that bar transgender girls from competing on girls’ school sports teams. The cases were Little v. Hecox and...

Hawaii’s ‘Vampire Rule’ and the Trouble With Black Code History

When the Supreme Court tells lower courts to look to “history and tradition,” it can sound simple. Find old laws, compare them to modern ones, and see what lines up. But the Court’s recent decision in Wolford v. Lopez shows how messy that exercise can get when a state’s best historical hook comes...

Supreme Court Opens the Door to Ending TPS for 1.3 Million People

Temporary Protected Status, usually called TPS, is one of those immigration programs that can sound technical until you realize what it does in everyday terms. It lets people already in the United States remain here and work legally when their home country is too dangerous for safe return, often...

Supreme Court Lets Exxon Sue Cuba Over 1960 Seizures

The Supreme Court has given Exxon Mobil a green light to continue a lawsuit against state-owned oil companies in Cuba, tied to property the Cuban government took in 1960 after Fidel Castro’s revolution. It is a striking reminder that, in the United States, events that happened generations ago can...

Judge Blocks Citizenship Database Checks for Voter Rolls

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from using a streamlined method to check citizenship status through a federal database as part of voter eligibility efforts. The dispute centers on a long-running tension in election administration: how to keep voter rolls accurate...

Ninth Circuit Blocks California School Secrecy Law on Gender Transitions

California’s ongoing fight over what public schools may, must, or may not tell parents just took a sharp turn in federal court. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an injunction blocking enforcement of parts of California’s AB 1955, a state law that limits...

Can a President Suspend Habeas Corpus?

Habeas corpus sounds like Latin you can safely ignore until the day it becomes your problem. In plain English, it is the right to ask a judge a simple question: Why is the government holding this person? If the government cannot justify the detention under law, the court can order release or other...

The White House Octagon and the Limits of Presidential Spectacle

A cage on the White House South Lawn is not the kind of sentence most of us expect to read in a civics lesson. And yet, this weekend, an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight night is scheduled with “The Octagon” built on the South Lawn, timed to President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and framed as...

The Fifth Circuit’s Horse Racing Fight Is Back, and SCOTUS Gets the Cleanup

There is a particular kind of legal mess that doesn’t come from the Constitution itself. It comes from a lower court deciding, repeatedly, that it knows better than everyone else, including the Supreme Court. That is where we are again with federal regulation of horse racing. A deeply conservative...