Articles by Eleanor Stratton

Trump Signs Executive Order Banning Flag Burning, Directly Defying a Landmark Supreme Court Ruling

In a dramatic Oval Office ceremony, the President of the United States signed a new executive order. “If you burn a flag,” he declared, “you get one year in jail.” This is not, however, a simple act of patriotic enforcement. It is an act of open political defiance. The President’s order...

Trump Declares War on a GOP Senator, Demands an End to the “Blue Slip” Tradition He Says Is Blocking His Judges

The President of the United States has launched a public attack on a senior senator from his own party. The target is not a policy disagreement, but an “old and outdated ‘custom’” – the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition. This is not a minor procedural squabble. It is a high-stakes,...

Illinois Governor to Trump on National Guard Threat: “Do Not Come to Chicago.”

“Mr. President, do not come to Chicago.” With those words, the Governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, drew a constitutional line in the sand. His defiant press conference was a direct response to President Trump’s threat to send the National Guard to Chicago to combat what he called a city that...

Federal Judge Deals Major Blow to Trump’s War on Sanctuary Cities, Calls His Threats “Unconstitutional.”

A federal judge in San Francisco has stood as a bulwark against the power of the White House, blocking the Trump administration from cutting off federal funding to dozens of so-called “sanctuary” cities and counties. This is not a ruling on the merits of immigration policy. It is a powerful and...

Trump Admin Proposes New “Ideological Litmus Test” to Deny Student Loan Forgiveness

For nearly two decades, the federal government has made a simple bargain with a generation of teachers, nurses, social workers, and other public servants. If you work in a vital, often lower-paying, public service job for ten years and make your student loan payments, the government will forgive...

DOJ Releases Ghislaine Maxwell Prison Interview

In a dramatic new move in the escalating war over the Jeffrey Epstein files, the Department of Justice has publicly released the full transcript of its recent prison interview with the convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. Hailed by the administration as an act of “transparency,” this is...

A Founding Father’s House is For Sale, and the Secret It Holds Could Have Saved the American Revolution

A historic brick house stands quietly on Boston’s Freedom Trail, a silent witness to the birth of our nation. Tourists walk by it every day, but few know the crucial secret it holds – not a ghost story, but the story of the hard, cold cash that helped save the American Revolution. Now for sale...

The Secret to the “Unwinnable War” America’s Founders Won Wasn’t Just the Declaration of Independence

Nearly 250 years ago, fifty-six men gathered in Philadelphia to sign a document that was both an act of high treason and a profound act of creation. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to a set of radical ideas about human liberty. The story of the “unwinnable war”...

Why a Federal Takeover of Chicago Isn’t Like D.C.

From the Oval Office on Friday, after weeks of exercising direct federal control over Washington, D.C., the President turned his attention to a new target. “Chicago’s a mess,” he declared, before adding ominously, “We’ll straighten that one out probably next.” This is not a mere...

Justice Jackson Accuses Supreme Court of Rigging Cases for Trump in “Scathing” Dissent

A sitting Supreme Court Justice has, in a formal written opinion, accused her own colleagues of playing a child’s game with the law of the land. In a scathing dissent to an emergency ruling, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson declared that the Court’s majority seems to be operating under the rules...

CBO Confirms Trump’s New Law Will Trigger Sequestration, Leading to Major Cuts in Medicare Funding

For ninety years, Social Security and Medicare have formed the bedrock of economic and health security for America’s seniors. These programs represent a constitutional promise, enacted under Congress’s power to provide for the “general Welfare.” Now, the President’s signature legislative...

Appeals Court Sides with Trump, Pausing Protections for 60,000 Immigrants Fleeing Disaster

A legal and humanitarian battle is raging in our federal courts over the fate of 60,000 immigrants. The Trump administration is moving to end their “Temporary Protected Status” (TPS), while a lower court judge has accused the administration of acting with “racial and discriminatory animus.”...

Trump Takes a Victory Lap in D.C., Vows to Join Police on Patrol After a “Nice Victory” in Court

In a fiery speech celebrating the federal takeover of Washington, D.C., the President of the United States announced he would personally join federal and local police on the streets of the capital. This is not a routine visit with law enforcement. It is a powerful and constitutionally unprecedented...

Trump Signals Major Shift in Ukraine Policy, Suggests Allowing Strikes on Russian Territory

With a simple sports metaphor posted to social media, the President of the United States may have just signaled a dramatic and perilous escalation in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Declaring that a team cannot win by “only playing defense,” he has publicly questioned the long-standing...

SCOTUS Deals Blow to Big Tech, But Kavanaugh’s “Likely Unconstitutional” Warning Signals the Real Fight is Coming

In a cryptic, unsigned order from its “shadow docket,” the Supreme Court has refused to block a sweeping new Mississippi law designed to police social media to protect children. But in a stunning twist, Justice Brett Kavanaugh sent a powerful and contradictory signal in a separate opinion,...

Hillary Clinton Faces Disbarment as Watchdog Files Ethics Complaint Over Her Role in “Russiagate Hoax”

The political and legal wars over the 2016 election are far from over. A new and constitutionally troubling front has just opened in this long battle. A government watchdog group has filed a formal ethics complaint with the Arkansas Bar, seeking to investigate and potentially disbar former...

Federal Judge Rejects DOJ Request to Release Epstein Grand Jury Transcripts

For the third time, a federal judge has slammed the door on the Trump administration’s attempt to unseal secret grand jury records in the Jeffrey Epstein case. This series of judicial rebukes is not a conspiracy to hide the truth. It is a powerful and unified stand by the judicial branch to...

Texas Democrats Try to Hijack Redistricting Bill with Epstein Files, GOP Speaker Shuts Them Down

On the floor of the Texas House of Representatives this week, a dramatic attempt was made to attach the explosive national controversy over the Jeffrey Epstein files to a must-pass redistricting bill. The effort was shut down not by a dramatic floor vote, but by a quiet, powerful, and rarely...

Trump Administration Now Offering $500 Cash for Tips Leading to Arrests in D.C. Crime Crackdown

The federal takeover of Washington, D.C. has entered a new and constitutionally troubling phase. The administration, touting the success of its crime crackdown, has now authorized the U.S. Marshals Service to offer $500 cash rewards for any tip from the public that leads to an arrest. While this...

Russia Bombs Less Than a Mile From NATO Border, Forcing a Terrifying Test of the Alliance

As American and European leaders were discussing a path to peace for Ukraine in Washington, Russian missiles were raining down on Ukrainian port facilities. The strikes landed less than a mile from the border of Romania. In that instant, a foreign conflict came a missile’s-width away from the...