Articles by Eleanor Stratton

Qualified Immunity

Qualified immunity is one of those legal phrases that sounds like a technical footnote until you realize it can decide whether a person ever gets their day in court. It comes up most often in lawsuits against police officers, but it applies more broadly to many government officials. When qualified...

What Is the Filibuster and How Does It Work?

The filibuster is one of those Washington words that sounds like a dusty procedural relic until it suddenly becomes the main character of American lawmaking. When the Senate “filibusters” a bill or nomination, what is really happening is simple: a minority of senators is using the Senate’s...

How Article V Amendments Work

The Constitution is famous for what it protects, but it is just as famous for how hard it is to change. That difficulty is not an accident. Article V is the Constitution’s built-in update mechanism, but it was designed to force broad national agreement before the country rewrites its rules. In...

Can a Person With a Felony Conviction Vote? Voting Rights by State

“Can a person with a felony conviction vote?” sounds like it should have one national answer. It does not. In the United States, voting rights after a felony conviction are mostly a state policy choice, and the differences are dramatic. In some states, you can vote even while incarcerated. In...

Civil Asset Forfeiture Explained

Civil asset forfeiture is one of those government powers that sounds like a plot device until it happens to you. A traffic stop. A search. A dog alert. A wad of cash in the glove compartment. Then the officer says the words that change the entire posture of the encounter: the property is being...

Your Rights During a Police Stop

Most people learn their “rights” from TV: the dramatic warning, the instant lawyer, the clear line between innocent questions and unlawful pressure. Real life is murkier. During a traffic stop or a street encounter, the Constitution gives you powerful protections, but it does not give you a...

CPAC Texas and the Fight Over America’s Next Chapter

CPAC has always been part pep rally, part power audit. But in Texas this week, the mood felt less like a routine gathering of conservative celebrities and more like a political war room with stadium lighting. The message from the stage and the crowd was consistent: this is not just another election...

A Republican Plan to Make Colleges Pay for Student Debt Relief

Student loan politics usually arrives in one of two costumes. Either it is a moral crusade for “forgiveness,” or it is a scolding lecture about personal responsibility. Both scripts are familiar. Neither one starts where serious policy should start: who is being asked to pay, and what...

SAVE America Act Hits the Senate Wall

The Senate can talk about election rules for days and still not be any closer to changing them. That is the reality check now facing Republicans and the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require proof of citizenship to vote. It has become a kind of legislative security blanket, a campaign-ready...

Trump Administration Waives Summer Gasoline Rules as Fuel Prices Spike

When gas prices jump fast, the federal government has a familiar temptation: loosen the rules that shape what can be sold at the pump. That is exactly what the Trump administration is doing now, temporarily waiving seasonal gasoline regulations in response to sharply higher fuel costs tied to the...

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Separation of Powers: The Three Branches Explained

Most Americans can name the three branches of government. Fewer can explain what each one actually does without slipping into civics class shorthand like “Congress makes laws” and “the President enforces them.” That shorthand is not wrong. It is just incomplete. The Constitution does not...

The Bill of Rights Explained (All 10 Amendments)

The Bill of Rights is the Constitution’s first ten amendments. Think of them as America’s original set of limits on federal power: rules the government must follow even when it has good intentions, even when the public is afraid, and even when the majority would rather not. They were written to...

The Electoral College Explained

The Electoral College is the system the United States uses to elect a president and vice president. It is not a separate election that happens instead of the popular vote. It is the mechanism that turns state popular votes into the official votes that legally choose the president. Every four years,...

Jury Nullification: Can a Jury Legally Ignore the Law?

Every criminal trial ends with the same ritual: the judge explains the law, the jury “finds the facts,” and everyone pretends those roles never overlap. Then a jury walks into the deliberation room and does something the system is built to discourage, but cannot completely prevent: it refuses...

U.S. Citizenship Test: 100 Civics Questions and Answers (2026)

You can learn the U.S. Constitution in a lifetime. You can pass the civics test in a few focused weeks. The citizenship civics test is not designed to trick you. It is designed to check whether you can recognize the basic structure of American government, name a few core rights, and place key...

Habeas Corpus Explained

Habeas corpus is one of those constitutional phrases people recognize without quite knowing what it does. It sounds ceremonial, like something you would find engraved on a courtroom wall. In reality, it is a blunt tool. A person is locked up. A judge demands an answer. The government must either...

The Supreme Court and the Postmark Problem

“Election Day” sounds like a single, fixed moment. Polls close, the votes are counted, a winner emerges, and the country moves on. But the legal fight now in front of the Supreme Court turns on a deceptively simple question: when federal law sets a single national Election Day, what counts as...

Texas Democrat Talarico Scrambles After Anti-Meat Clip Returns

In politics, nothing is ever really “old.” It is just waiting to be reintroduced with a sharper caption and a meaner algorithm. That is the predicament now facing James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, after a 2022 clip resurfaced showing him urging Texans to cut back...

The Voter ID Trap in the Senate

Washington has a favorite magic trick: declare agreement in principle, then make sure the principle never becomes law. That is the story a Republican senator tried to force into the open this week when he asked the Senate to pass a standalone national voter ID requirement by unanimous consent. The...