Articles by Eleanor Stratton

Supreme Court and Redistricting

When a congressional map is challenged close to an election, the dispute can look like pure politics. But the legal question underneath it is older than any modern redistricting cycle: who, exactly, is allowed to draw the lines that decide who votes for which member of Congress? That question is...

Non-Citizen Voting Arrests: What Federal Law and the Constitution Say

Arrest video tied to alleged non-citizen voting has a way of triggering the same argument on repeat: one side insists it is widespread, the other insists it is impossible. The Constitution does not settle the debate as neatly as either side suggests. It does not contain a single sentence that...

Pentagon Leadership Shake-Ups and Presidential Power

The Constitution gives the president a title that sounds absolute: Commander in Chief . In moments of Pentagon turmoil, that phrase can get treated like a blank check, as if the White House can rearrange the entire national security bureaucracy at will, instantly, and without consequence. But the...

Can a President Force Lower Interest Rates or Stop Trade?

Presidents talk about interest rates and trade the way coaches talk about the refs: as if a little pressure and a louder voice might change the outcome. The Constitution does not run on vibes. It runs on separated powers, delegated statutes, and a financial system deliberately built to resist...

Why North Carolina’s Supreme Court Blocked a Congressional Map Before the Midterms

When a state supreme court blocks a congressional map weeks before a midterm election, it feels like the judiciary is stepping onto the field in the fourth quarter. But in American election law, that is often exactly when courts show up, because that is when deadlines turn legal theories into...

Birthright Citizenship and the 14th Amendment: Can a President End It by Executive Order?

Birthright citizenship is one of those constitutional ideas that sounds simple until someone tries to change it in real time. A recurring flashpoint is when a president issues (or proposes) an executive order aimed at narrowing who counts as a citizen at birth, and a federal court quickly blocks it...

Hung Juries and the Lindsay Clancy Trial

A criminal jury’s job is deceptively simple on paper: listen, weigh credibility, apply the law as instructed, and return a verdict. In real life, that last step can become the hardest one, because the American jury is built to require something rare in modern civic life: unanimity. That design is...

Vance’s Podium Joke, Bartiromo’s Exit, and the Press Secretary Rumor Mill

There are two ways Washington staffing rumors usually die. Either the White House announces a name and everyone moves on, or the rumor collapses under the weight of its own improbability. The viral “press secretary” moment that lit up social media on September 3, 2026 took a third path: it didn’t...

Can a Foreign President Claim Immunity in U.S. Federal Court?

You can feel the tension in the phrase sovereign immunity . It sounds absolute, like a force field. But in U.S. law it is closer to a set of rules about who can be sued or prosecuted, where , and who gets to say so . That is why a headline like “foreign president asks judge to dismiss U.S....

Can DOJ Cut State Welfare Funds Over Immigration Reporting?

The headline version is simple: if federal officials warn that states could lose major welfare-related dollars unless they comply with immigration-information reporting requirements, the dispute usually turns on a familiar set of constitutional and statutory limits. The constitutional version is...

Can Congress Require Mail Ballots to Arrive by Election Day?

When people argue about mail-in voting, they usually argue about security or access . But the fight underneath those words is more mechanical than moral: who gets to set the deadline for a ballot that travels through the mail. In recent years, some Republicans, including allies of President Donald...

Shutdown Averted, Nominations, Courts, and a Primary Shock

Most political stories are easier when they stay in one lane. Congress. The White House. Courts. Culture. This week did not cooperate. The headlines sprawled, but the connecting tissue was the same as ever: power moves land hardest when they collide with process and voters feel the friction. Here...

Judge Talwani, Mail-In Voting, and the Constitution’s Clock

When a federal district judge becomes the main character in an election fight, it is usually because something bigger is happening behind the scenes. But before any personalities take over the story, one grounding point matters more than the headlines. Clarification: This piece is an explainer that...

Can the President Order Military Strikes on Drug Cartels Without Congress?

The Constitution makes war powers feel simple on paper and slippery in real life. Congress has the power to declare war and to authorize, fund, and regulate the armed forces. The President commands the military. Then the world hands us problems that do not fit the Founders’ clean categories, like...

Clyburn’s Thomas Regret and the Four-Seat Supreme Court Plan

In recent years, Justice Clarence Thomas has repeatedly become the center of a different kind of national argument: ethics, jurisprudence, or the Court’s legitimacy. This time, the spark is not a new ruling or a new disclosure. It is a political reversal tied to an institutional proposal. In...

How a Discharge Petition Could Force a House Vote on Epstein Records

You can learn a lot about the Constitution by watching Congress fail to do simple things. Take transparency. Almost everyone agrees with it in the abstract. Almost everyone loves it in campaign ads. But when it becomes a concrete vote that can embarrass an agency, inconvenience leadership, or split...

The Mar-a-Lago Data-Center Dare

Mar-a-Lago is trending for a reason that has almost nothing to do with gold fixtures or membership lists. It became a stand-in for a much larger civic question: when political leaders call for a nationwide buildout of data centers and AI infrastructure, who is expected to host the noisy,...

Dark Money, Fake Polls, and Election Trickery: What Federal Law Actually Allows

You can feel the tension every election cycle: someone is always “rigging,” “tricking,” or “confusing” the electorate. In 2026, the buzzwords are dark money , fake polls , and primary meddling . Here is the hard truth that tends to disappoint everyone equally. Federal election law is not a general...

Can Congress Cap the Supreme Court at Nine Justices?

You can feel it every time the Supreme Court becomes the main character in the news: someone proposes a “fix” that sounds constitutional, even if it is really political. One of the recurring ideas is a “cap at nine,” often rolled into a House resolution meant to force a vote and draw lines....

Your ChatGPT Chats Can Be Subpoenaed

People often assume they have a constitutional right to privacy in their “private” conversations. Except when your “private” life is a searchable object inside a device, a cloud account, or a corporate database. Then privacy stops being a feeling and becomes a legal question. And the legal question...