Articles by James Caldwell

Washington, D.C. is not just the seat of the federal government. It is where federal power gets questioned in public, under oath, and on a timetable that can move far slower than politics. Right now, that timetable is colliding with major parts of President Trump’s second-term agenda. In case...

Every generation gets its own version of the same civic argument: Where does a constitutional right end, and where does the government’s power to manage public spaces begin? This month, that argument moved into a particularly ordinary place with an unusually sharp legal edge, the neighborhood...

Judge Orders Attorney Access at Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

A federal judge has issued a pointed reminder to Florida’s Everglades immigration detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz”: detention does not come with a pause button for lawyer access. U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell has entered a preliminary injunction requiring the...

Fentanyl, Money, and National Security

When a drug kills this many Americans, it stops being just a “crime problem.” It becomes something closer to a sovereignty test. That is the argument South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is forcing the country to face: fentanyl is not only a public health catastrophe, it is a national...

Van Hollen and the Shutdown Question: What Did Democrats Win?

There is a special kind of political argument that only happens during a shutdown. It is partly about funding, but it is also about blame. And if you listen closely, it is also about the Constitution’s basic design: Congress holds the purse strings, the executive branch runs the agencies, and the...

Wars have a way of producing two very different kinds of numbers: the numbers leaders say out loud, and the numbers intelligence officers say behind closed doors. When those sets of numbers clash, the Constitution is not just background reading. It is the measuring stick. After roughly a month of...

When Congress toys with a government shutdown, plenty of people say it is about principle. But a harder question keeps coming up: is this a moral stand, or a bargaining chip? That question surfaced again on Friday, when House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was asked by an interviewer whether a...

Iranian ‘Sleeper’ Agents in Canada

When most Americans hear the phrase sleeper agent , they picture a spy novel: a quiet figure living an ordinary life, waiting for a coded message that flips a switch. But the constitutional question raised by a recent allegation is not cinematic. It is practical and unsettling. A claim attributed...

A Dutch Courtroom and a Genocide Claim

An Amsterdam courtroom is not where most Americans go to think about constitutional government. But it should be. Because when a lawyer stands before judges and calls COVID-19 vaccination “the largest genocide of the world’s population ever,” he is not just filing a brief. He is throwing a...

A Murder Case and Due Process

Every so often, a criminal case lands in the public square with a set of details so jarring that it disrupts our civic instincts. A man is accused of murdering a Chicago student. He is reportedly in the country illegally. And then comes the detail that makes people sit up straight: according to...

Former Frontex Chief Under French Probe Over Migrant Pushbacks

When governments enforce borders, somebody always wants a courtroom to be the final word. France has reportedly opened a judicial investigation targeting Fabrice Leggeri, the former head of the European Union border agency Frontex and a current Member of the European Parliament. The allegation is...

House GOP Passes DHS Patch as Shutdown Drags Toward a Record

Washington has reached that familiar point where procedure starts to look like punishment. Late Friday, House Republicans approved a short-term funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security, a move meant to break a standoff that has already stretched into a 42-day partial shutdown. The...

DHS Funding Standoff

Washington loves to talk about “national security” in the abstract. But the Department of Homeland Security shutdown has a way of stripping the abstraction off. When the White House has to reach for existing funds to keep about 50,000 TSA agents from missing yet another paycheck, you are not...

Iran Hits Prince Sultan Air Base: The Constitutional Question Behind the Smoke

Twelve American service members were injured on Friday when Iran hit Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia with a combined missile and drone strike. Two of those troops were reported seriously hurt. U.S. officials said at least two KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft also suffered significant damage....

The Supreme Court, a Wristlock, and Qualified Immunity

Here is the uncomfortable question hovering over Zorn v. Linton : When a protester refuses to move, what kind of force can an officer lawfully use to make her move, and when can she sue afterward? On Monday, the Supreme Court did not set a new line for how much force is too much. Instead, it...

Senate Republicans Press Trump to Restore the Title X ‘Protect Life Rule’

Every few years, Washington rediscovers a familiar trick: fight the abortion battle by fighting over the plumbing. Not the moral argument. Not even the constitutional argument. The funding pipes. On Thursday, a group of Republican senators led by Sen. Todd Young of Indiana sent a letter to the...

New $6,000 Tax Break for Seniors: Do You Qualify?

Every time Congress announces a “new tax break,” I hear the same question from retirees and their adult kids: Is this real relief, or is it just a new label on the same old rules? The answer with the new senior deduction is: it is real, it can lower your taxable income, and it is also easy to...

The 2026 Social Security COLA: 2.8% and the Fight Over What “Keeping Up” Means

Each year, the federal government performs a small ritual that quietly shapes the lives of tens of millions of Americans. It recalculates retirement checks, disability payments, and Supplemental Security Income. Then it announces a number that sounds technical but hits like a household budget...

Trump Taunts Schumer as DHS Shutdown Squeezes TSA

Washington has a knack for turning a funding lapse into a made-for-TV moment: airport security lines get longer, leaders trade blame on the Senate floor, and a quick verbal stumble becomes the headline. This week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued Republicans bear responsibility for the...

Moreno’s Shutdown Rebuke and a Civics Failure

A government shutdown always comes with a familiar script: press conferences, finger-pointing, and the same recycled lines about “responsibility” and “priorities.” But there is one detail that cuts through the performance because it is not theoretical. It is rent. It is groceries. It is...