Articles by Eleanor Stratton

Good Faith Exception and Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

The exclusionary rule sounds simple: if the police break the Fourth Amendment, the evidence gets thrown out. As a baseline in criminal cases, that is often the idea. In practice, it is much messier. Courts have built in pressure-release valves. Some evidence stays in even if the search was...

Most people think a criminal sentence ends when the jail door opens, probation ends, or the fine gets paid. But a conviction can keep punishing you long after the judge is done. Lawyers and policymakers often call these collateral consequences (sometimes collateral sanctions or discretionary...

Federal cooperation deals have a reputation: a quiet conference room, a stack of exhibits, and a person trying to talk their way out of the worst day of their life. What actually happens is less cinematic and more contractual. “Cooperating” in a federal case usually means the government wants...

Guilty, Not Guilty, Nolo Contendere, and Alford Pleas Explained

At an arraignment , the judge confirms what you are accused of, makes sure you understand key rights, and asks a deceptively simple question: How do you plead? Those words are a switch. A not guilty plea keeps the government in proof mode. A guilty plea moves the case into sentencing mode. And two...

Consular processing is the immigrant visa pathway most people use when they are outside the United States and want to enter as lawful permanent residents. It is not a single form. It is a sequence of handoffs between agencies, deadlines that matter, and one high-stakes moment when a consular...

Denaturalization Explained: How U.S. Citizenship Can Be Revoked

Most Americans treat citizenship as a one-way door. You are in, forever. For people born in the United States, that is close to true. For people who become citizens through naturalization , there is a narrow, high-stakes exception: denaturalization , the legal process of taking citizenship back....

People talk about redistricting as if it were a political sport. A new census drops, lines move, and the party in charge tries to lock in power for a decade. Allen v. Milligan (2023) is what happens when that game runs into a federal statute that still has sharp edges. The case did not ask whether...

VRA Section 2 and Vote Dilution, Explained

Most voting rights debates get framed as a question of access. Can you register? Can you cast a ballot? Can you stay in line long enough? Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act often asks a different, quieter question: even if everyone can vote, does the election system make some voters’ ballots less...

Brnovich v. DNC Explained

Most Americans assume the Voting Rights Act is a broad, sturdy shield: if a voting rule makes it harder to vote, especially for minority voters, federal law will step in. Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (2021) did not erase that shield. But it did narrow the doorway for one major kind of...

Immigration policy in the United States can feel like it changes overnight. One week it is a new “rule.” The next it is a new “guidance.” Then a court blocks something, a new administration reverses it, and everyone asks the same question: did the law actually change? Sometimes it did. Often it did...

Swatting at Justice Barrett’s Home and the Court’s Security Problem

On Wednesday night, police in Fairfax County, Virginia, were dispatched to the residence of Justice Amy Coney Barrett after a caller reported an emergency. It was a swatting call, a false report designed to trigger a law enforcement response where none is needed. A Fairfax County Police Department...

Can a City Compel Counselors to Counsel Same-Sex Married Couples?

There is a version of this question that sounds simple. If you open a business to the public, you serve the public. End of story. And then there is the constitutional version, where “service” is not just selling a product but speaking, listening, advising, affirming, challenging, and guiding. In...

South Carolina Senate Refuses to Redraw Maps Mid-Election

Editor’s note: This article is a forward-looking analysis set in the 2026 election cycle. Dates, figures, and quotations are presented within that hypothetical setting. South Carolina lawmakers came to Columbia with a clear mission: redraw the state’s congressional map in time for the 2026...

What Are US Midterm Elections?

Midterm elections are the federal election cycle held two years into a president’s four-year term. They are not a “midterm test” in any legal sense, but politically they often function like one because voters decide whether the president’s party will keep or lose power in Congress. Here is the...

New Hampshire’s Campus Gun Ban Fight

Public colleges like to speak in the language of community. They are marketplaces of ideas, shared spaces, open campuses, open doors. But when the topic is firearms, many public universities suddenly speak a different language. Not community, but property. Not rights, but rules. Not citizens, but...

The Supreme Court’s Worst Decisions (and Why They Never Really Die)

We treat Supreme Court decisions like tombstones. Chiseled in stone. Final. Settled. But the Court’s worst moments do not stay buried. Even when a case is “overruled,” the reasoning that powered it can linger in the legal bloodstream, ready to reappear in a new body with a new name. So when we rank...

Graham’s Warning to GOP Dissenters

Political parties are coalitions until they are not. At some point, a coalition stops being a loose agreement about goals and becomes a discipline system. Rewards flow to those who help the leader. Penalties land on those who do not. Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested the Republican Party is operating...

What Are RICO Charges?

When you hear that someone is facing “RICO charges,” it often sounds like a prosecutor just opened a trap door labeled organized crime and dropped the defendant through it. But RICO is not a magical super-crime. It is a statute, passed in 1970, that lets prosecutors connect the dots between...

“Don’t Let Them Hide FOX News” and the First Amendment

You are on Fox News. The page dims. A centered popup takes over the screen in dark blue with Fox branding and a warning that sounds less like marketing and more like mobilization: “Don’t Let Them Hide FOX News.” Under it: “Take control of your search.” The call to action is specific. A graphic...

McMorrow’s Water Bills and the Politics of Shutoffs

Mallory McMorrow is building a U.S. Senate campaign around affordability and the idea that basic necessities should not be rationed by wealth. But at her Royal Oak-area property, her own water account became a quiet case study in how quickly “policy” turns into “practice.” Records show McMorrow and...