Articles by Eleanor Stratton

Justice Alito’s One-Word Argument in the Late-Ballot Case

Sometimes a Supreme Court argument turns on a constitutional principle so grand it feels like it belongs on marble. Other times it turns on a word so ordinary you could miss the stakes entirely. This week, the justices wrestled with one of those ordinary words: day . Not “liberty.” Not “equal...

DHS Shutdown Fight Turns Into a Constitutional Power Struggle

A shutdown is usually sold as a budget problem. But the longer it drags on, the more it becomes something else: a live-fire test of who, exactly, controls the machinery of the federal government. As the Department of Homeland Security entered its 36th day of a partial government shutdown affecting...

DOJ Asks Court to Lift Abrego Garcia Deportation Block

Immigration fights usually look like policy arguments. This one is mostly a procedural collision between two kinds of government power: the executive branch’s authority to remove a noncitizen, and a federal court’s authority to pause that removal while legal questions are sorted out. In the...

GOP States Rally Behind the SAVE Act

There is a quiet constitutional irony at the center of America’s loudest election fights: the federal government sets baseline rules for federal elections, but the states build the machinery that decides how those rules are enforced.  That tension is exactly what Republican governors and...

Judge Declines Recusal in Minnesota DHS, ICE Dispute

A basic promise sits underneath every court ruling, especially the ones that land in a political spotlight: the judge has to be more than fair. The judge has to look fair. That is why a new fight in federal court in Minnesota is not just about immigration enforcement tactics. It is also about...

Federal Judge Blocks Ten Commandments Displays in Arkansas Classrooms

A federal judge has permanently barred several Arkansas school districts from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms, ruling that the state’s 2025 mandate violated the Constitution. The decision is the latest flashpoint in a long-running fight over the First Amendment’s religion clauses,...

A Biden-Appointed Judge, a Supreme Court Stay, and the New Anxiety Over Trial Courts

When people talk about “the Supreme Court,” they usually mean finality. Black robes. Marble steps. The last word. But most of the real governing in American law happens earlier, lower, and faster. It happens when a single district judge issues an order that takes effect immediately, long before...

The Supreme Court Case That Won’t Let States Fix Education

States pour enormous sums into public schools, but a Supreme Court ruling from 1982 sharply limits how states can respond when those dollars are used to educate children of people in the country unlawfully. That tension is now back in the spotlight, with Tennessee pushing toward a fresh test of...

Nine convicted in North Texas ICE attack

A federal jury in Fort Worth convicted nine defendants for their roles in the July 4, 2025, attack on the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Jurors delivered a mixed verdict, meaning the defendants were not all convicted of the same...

Illegal Alien Charged After Violent Tussle with Federal Officer

A routine enforcement stop outside a business in Utica, Michigan turned into something far more serious: a Justice Department criminal complaint now accuses a Venezuelan national of assaulting a federal officer, resisting arrest, and grabbing and possessing the officer’s firearm during a physical...

Boasberg Quashes Subpoenas Targeting Fed Chair Powell

There are a lot of ways a President can try to bend Washington to his will. Public pressure. Backchannel persuasion. Personnel changes. And, sometimes, something far more fraught: using the optics of a criminal process as a lever in a political dispute. That is the concern sitting at the center of...

Appeals Court Pauses Block on Trump Third-Country Deportations

A federal appeals court just gave the Trump administration a short-term victory in a fight that is quickly turning into a constitutional stress test: how much process the government must provide before it sends a noncitizen to a country they are not from. On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for...

Michigan Police Respond to Reported Shooting at West Bloomfield Synagogue

Michigan State Police say they are responding to an “active shooting” incident at Temple Israel, a Reform Jewish synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. The response began around 12:30 p.m. local time Thursday , according to state police. Reuters also reported that federal officials are...

Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to End Haiti TPS

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to step in and clear the way for ending Temporary Protected Status for about 350,000 Haitian migrants, escalating a fight that sits at the intersection of immigration policy, judicial power, and how courts review executive branch decisions. At...

Newsom Blames Trump as California Gas Prices Surge

When gas prices jump, elected officials do what they have done since the first American road trip. They point outward. War, markets, speculators, greedy companies, the other party. This week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom aimed his finger at President Donald Trump and the conflict involving Iran....

Iran’s Assassination Plot Against Trump

As tensions between the United States and Iran continue to escalate, recent developments have illuminated the precarious balance between national security and constitutional governance. In a striking announcement, Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that an Iranian leader behind an...

Trump Just Fired Kristi Noem After “a culmination of her many unfortunate leadership failures”

Kristi Noem became the first Cabinet secretary to leave President Trump’s second term Thursday. She didn’t resign – she was fired. The official White House statement called her departure a “job switch” to a new Western Hemisphere security role. Administration officials told NBC News it...

Trump floats Ted Cruz for Supreme Court

During a recent event in Corpus Christi, Texas, former President Donald Trump proposed the idea of nominating Senator Ted Cruz to the Supreme Court. Trump humorously suggested that Cruz would receive a unanimous vote from both Democrats and Republicans for his appointment, implying that lawmakers...

Why the Democrats Are Daring to Chain the Commander-in-Chief

The lead-lined walls of the Capitol’s most secure briefing rooms were the only witnesses to a tense confrontation Monday as the “Gang of Eight” received their first classified look at the intelligence behind the weekend’s massive strikes. While the administration points to a...

Lawmakers Want Billionaires to Foot the Bill for $3,000 Payouts to American Households

In the ongoing debate about wealth inequality in America, a new legislative proposal has emerged that aims to shift financial burdens from struggling households to the nation’s wealthiest individuals. Progressive lawmakers, led by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ro Khanna, have...