Articles by Eleanor Stratton

Trump Asks SCOTUS to Intervene in “Shadow Docket” Showdown Over $12 Billion in Foreign Aid

The clock is ticking down to the end of the fiscal year. And in a frantic, last-minute legal maneuver, the Trump administration has made an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court to block the release of nearly $12 billion in foreign aid funds that were appropriated by Congress. This is not just a...

Ouster of CDC Director Deepens Concerns Over Politicization of Public Health

The nation’s premier public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has been plunged into a state of chaos. Its new, Senate-confirmed director, Dr. Susan Monarez, was fired after less than a month on the job, an act that has triggered a wave of resignations from other...

Feds Fail to Indict Man Who Threw a Sandwich at an Officer in D.C.

It began with a viral video that captured the tension of a capital city under federal patrol: a man shouts obscenities at a federal officer and then hurls his sub sandwich at him. The Department of Justice responded with the full force of its authority, charging the man with felony assault. But...

The Founders’ Intentions For the “Right to Bear Arms”

A single attacker, armed with a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol. The horrific event in Minneapolis, like so many before it, immediately forces a wrenching national question: Why does our Constitution protect private access to such an arsenal? The debate that follows these tragedies often boils down...

Federal Judge Blocks Deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Extending Court Fight with Trump Administration

A single federal judge has drawn a firm, constitutional line in the sand. In a direct and powerful confrontation with the executive branch, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has issued an emergency order forbidding the Trump administration from deporting Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia. This...

Speaker Johnson Tours Nation to Promote New Law Eliminating Taxes on Tipped Wages

The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, stood not in the halls of Congress this week, but in a classic Nashville honky-tonk. He was there to sell the President’s “big, beautiful bill” not with complex budget charts, but with a simple, powerful, and politically brilliant promise to the...

After “Bloody Weekend,” Some Blue City Residents Plead for Trump to Send in Troops, Defying Their Own Governor

After another weekend of tragic violence that saw six people killed, including a five-year-old boy, a desperate and constitutionally dangerous cry is rising from some corners of Chicago. Frustrated with the relentless crime, some residents are now openly welcoming President Trump’s threat to send...

Trump Signals Major Shift on Chinese Student Visas, Drawing Criticism from Rep. Greene

President Trump has signaled that the United States will not only welcome, but potentially more than double, the number of Chinese students studying at American universities. This is not a minor adjustment. It is a major reversal of the administration’s own hardline rhetoric. The President’s...

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.”...