Articles by James Caldwell

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...

A Bill to Take Citizenship Back From Terrorists

Rep. Riley Moore of West Virginia is pushing a new approach in Congress: if a person becomes an American through naturalization and later commits terrorism, should the United States be able to take that citizenship back and deport them? Moore says yes. He announced plans Thursday to introduce...

Judge Keeps Fani Willis Out of Fee Fight in Dismissed Trump RICO Case

When a prosecutor gets tossed off a case, you might assume the story ends there. In Georgia, it does not. The latest twist in the dismissed Trump RICO prosecution is a narrower, procedural question with a very real consequence: who gets to argue about the money when defendants seek to claw back...

Can the President Bypass Congress for “Operation Epic Fury”?

The smoke from “Operation Epic Fury” had barely begun to clear over Tehran when a secondary, equally volatile conflict ignited within the halls of the U.S. Capitol. Following a massive joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign that reportedly resulted in the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,...

“Operation Epic Fury” and the Fall of the Supreme Leader

The geopolitical tectonic plates of the Middle East shifted violently on Saturday as a barrage of “heavy and pinpoint” ordnance turned the skyline of Tehran into a tapestry of fire and smoke. What began as a series of failed diplomatic maneuvers earlier in the week has culminated in...

Melania Trump Presides at UN Security Council Meeting as U.S. Attacks Iran

In a striking intersection of diplomacy and military action, Melania Trump took center stage at a recent United Nations Security Council meeting, coinciding with a series of U.S. airstrikes targeting Iranian military installations. This unusual scenario of a First Lady participating in such a...

The First Domino Falls: How the 2026 Epstein Files Finally Led to a Royal Arrest

The relative quiet of a crisp February morning in Windsor was shattered Thursday by a sequence of events that many constitutional scholars believed would never grace the pages of history. For decades, the intersection of British royalty and American jurisprudence has been a landscape of...

Polling Shift in the Golden State: Two Republicans Lead as Democrat Policy Faces Scrutiny

The political geography of the United States has long treated California as an impenetrable fortress of progressive policy – a “one-party state” where the Republican brand was thought to have been permanently relegated to the history books. However, a series of new internal and independent...

Here’s How the DHS Shutdown Could Impact the Lives of Everyday Americans

The looming shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security threatens critical services and raises questions about the implications for American citizens. As the deadline approaches for funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), concerns grow about how a government shutdown could affect...

Judge Blocks Re-Arrest of Salvadoran Migrant Amid Ongoing Criminal Case

A federal judge’s recent order prevents ICE from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant, as he faces a separate criminal case in Nashville. This ruling raises questions about immigration enforcement and due process. A recent federal court ruling has prevented Immigration and...

Unelected Judges Now Free to Go Political: Is the Judiciary Abandoning Neutrality?

The U.S. Judicial Conference’s recent ethics guidelines allowing federal judges to engage publicly on certain issues have sparked significant criticism from conservative circles, raising concerns over judicial independence and political bias. The U.S. Judicial Conference has recently issued new...