Articles by Eleanor Stratton

Reasonable Expectation of Privacy and the Katz Test

You can read the Fourth Amendment ten times and never find the word “privacy.” What you will find is a promise about security: the people’s right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures. So how did “privacy” become the everyday shorthand for Fourth Amendment protection?...

The Take Care Clause

You will sometimes hear the presidency described as a job with two contradictory settings: “commander” and “caretaker.” The commander pushes policy. The caretaker runs the machinery of government. The Constitution captures part of that caretaker role in text. Article II requires that the...

Strict Scrutiny, Intermediate Scrutiny, and Rational Basis

Constitutional arguments often sound moral. They can also sound historical. But in a courtroom, many constitutional fights turn on something that looks almost boring: the standard of review . That standard decides how hard a judge will press the government for an explanation. Some laws get the...

When Birth Statistics Collide With Birthright Citizenship

Numbers can be polite. They sit on the page, they look neutral, and they do not raise their voice. But in the wrong argument, a number can land like a constitutional question mark. This piece is about what happens when births, border policy, and constitutional language collide. Not because one tidy...

Birthright Citizenship and the Jurisdiction Question

Some estimates are sometimes cited in public discussions suggesting that a share of U.S. births involve parents who are either in the United States unlawfully or present on a temporary legal status. Those estimates can vary depending on definitions and methods, and there is not a single universally...

What Voters Trust Each Party to Fix

Americans rarely vote on a single issue. But elections still tend to organize themselves around a few dominant anxieties, the problems voters feel in their bones when they pull into a gas station, watch local news, or scan their bank app. A new national survey conducted April 17-20 offers a clear...

Congress Pauses Epstein Hearings, and Oversight Starts to Look Optional

Congress does not have to win a criminal case to do its job. It does not have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. It does not even have to name a defendant. Its job is simpler and, in a functioning republic, more relentless: find facts, expose failures, and fix the laws that allowed those...

Congress Hits Pause on Epstein Hearings

Congressional oversight is supposed to work like sunlight. A committee announces witnesses, sets a timetable, and the public gets to watch the government do what the Constitution quietly expects it to do: investigate, inform, and legislate with facts rather than rumors. So when the House Oversight...

Can a Secretary Dismantle the Department of Education?

The U.S. Constitution does not create a right to education. It does not assign schooling to Washington. And it does not mention a federal Department of Education. In practice, that has helped leave primary responsibility for schools with the states. That said, the modern federal education state is...

Senate Border Funding Push: Enforcement, Shutdown Pressure, and Taxpayer Stakes

Washington loves to pretend a “shutdown” is a single switch that flips to OFF. It is not. It is a pressure chamber, and when funding talks stall, that pressure tends to show up first in departments built for constant operations. One concrete way this can bite: when funding is unsettled,...

Tariff Power and the Courts

Tariffs are sometimes treated like a presidential dial. Turn it up to project resolve. Turn it down to ease price pressure. In some election cycles, they are used to signal solidarity with steelworkers, farmers, or consumers. They can also be framed as a fast tool for bargaining leverage or for...

Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) Explained

You can sue many people and entities in American court. A company. A neighbor. A city. Sometimes even the federal government, but only where Congress has clearly waived immunity. A foreign country is different. Not because it is too powerful to be sued, but because the United States has decided, as...

The Compact Clause and Interstate Deals

States are not supposed to behave like mini-countries. They cannot make treaties, coin money, or run foreign policy. But the Constitution also recognizes something more practical: sometimes states have to cooperate. They share rivers and ports. They run commuter rail systems that cross state lines....

The Legislative Veto and INS v. Chadha

Congress loves a shortcut. The Constitution does not. For much of the 20th century, one of Congress’s favorite shortcuts was the legislative veto , a device that let either one chamber, or sometimes even a committee, cancel an executive action without passing a new law. It felt efficient. It...

The Border Search Exception

You can memorize the Fourth Amendment in a minute. You can spend a lifetime learning the exceptions. The border search exception is one of the biggest. It is the doctrine that lets the government search people and property at the international border, and at its functional equivalents like...

Cooper v. Aaron and Supreme Court Supremacy

Most Supreme Court cases are remembered for a rule. Cooper v. Aaron is remembered for a warning. In 1958, Arkansas officials tried to slow-walk, outmaneuver, and ultimately evade school desegregation after Brown v. Board of Education . The Supreme Court responded with a rare, unanimous opinion....

The Byrd Rule and Reconciliation Bills

Budget reconciliation is often described like a cheat code: a fast-track tool that lets the Senate pass major fiscal legislation by simple majority vote under tight debate limits, so a filibuster cannot drag it out. In a 50-50 Senate, that “51” often means the vice president breaking a tie. The...

The False Claims Act and Qui Tam Lawsuits

Most government fraud is boring on purpose. It hides in the ordinary: a billing code entered twice, a box checked that should have been left blank, a contract requirement treated like a suggestion. And because federal spending is massive, the smallest lie can scale into a fortune. The False Claims...

Diplomatic Immunity Explained

Diplomatic immunity is one of those phrases Americans hear when something goes wrong: a serious car crash, an assault allegation, a sensational headline that ends with “the suspect claimed immunity.” It can sound like a magic word. Like a foreign official can do anything on U.S. soil and simply...

What Is a Green Card?

Americans talk about a “green card” like it is a membership badge. You either have it or you do not. But legally, the important thing is not the card. It is the status behind it. A green card is evidence that the federal government has granted you lawful permanent resident status (LPR), either...