Constitutional Topics

Hur Audio Fight: Executive Privilege and DOJ Records

When the executive branch refuses to release audio recordings from a high-profile special counsel investigation, it can feel like a procedural footnote. It is not. In the dispute over audio from Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified...

Who Controls the Kennedy Center?

The Kennedy Center sits in Washington, DC, hosts presidents, premieres, and school groups, and carries a name that feels as permanent as marble. But its real story is not just cultural. It is civic. The Center is a performing-arts venue with an unusually federal footprint, and that hybrid design...

Reflecting Pool Vandalism Arrests: What Federal Law Says

When people hear about arrests connected to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the instinct is to treat it like any other local vandalism case. It is not. The Reflecting Pool sits on federal land, managed as part of the National Mall, and that changes many of the practical basics: who...

Can Members of Congress Trade Stocks?

Every time a headline resurfaces about a lawmaker buying or selling shares at a politically convenient moment, the same public question returns: is congressional stock trading actually legal ? Today’s news hook is a familiar one: a former House member who once brushed off the idea of a ban now...

Can a State Limit ICE? Sanctuary Laws, Federal Power, and Preemption

When headlines say the Justice Department is suing a state over “sanctuary” limits, the constitutional question is usually simpler than the politics: Can a state refuse to help ICE , and if it can, how far can it go before it starts interfering with federal law ? To be clear on the factual...

Can Courts Control a District Attorney?

District attorneys are typically elected to make hard calls that judges are not supposed to make. Who gets charged, what the charges are, whether a plea deal is offered, and whether a conviction should be defended on appeal are core prosecutorial functions. In American constitutional design, those...

What Is FISA? How Confirmation Votes and Surveillance Renewal Got Linked

FISA is one of those Washington acronyms that seems designed to stay mysterious until it suddenly becomes the headline. It stands for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act , a post-Watergate and Church Committee era law that created special rules for spying in the name of national security. It...

What Is the Filibuster? Senate Rules, New States, Court Expansion, and the Save America Act

The word filibuster does not appear anywhere in the Constitution. And yet it routinely determines what the United States can and cannot do, not because it is a constitutional command, but because the Senate chose to build a supermajority gate into its own procedures. That is why a single newsy...

What Is FISA Section 702?

When surveillance makes the news, the public question is almost always the same: Can the government spy without a warrant? FISA Section 702 sits right on that nerve. It is a federal surveillance authority designed for foreign intelligence gathering, built for the reality that modern communications...

Court Packing and the Separation of Powers

A sitting U.S. senator just addressed, in plain terms, a topic that can turn politically volatile fast. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, asked on Meet the Press about expanding the Supreme Court, replied that all options have to be on the table . That line matters because court expansion is not...

Can a President Suspend Habeas Corpus?

Habeas corpus sounds like Latin you can safely ignore until the day it becomes your problem. In plain English, it is the right to ask a judge a simple question: Why is the government holding this person? If the government cannot justify the detention under law, the court can order release or other...

Patagonia vs. Pattie Gonia: When Trademark Law Meets Parody

There is a familiar American story hiding inside a very modern fight: a famous brand says it has to police its name, and an activist says their work depends on being recognizable. On Jan. 21, 2026 , Patagonia filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against environmental activist and drag performer...

Techdirt’s Funniest Comments of the Week, and Why They Matter

There is a particular kind of comment section that does not just dunk on the news. It audits it. Techdirt tends to draw that kind of reader. People who can spot a bad incentive structure from a mile away, people who understand that “just ban it” is not an argument, and people who use humor the...

Mail and Wire Fraud Explained

Mail fraud and wire fraud are the federal government’s legal Swiss Army knife for deception that crosses a mailbox or an internet connection. They show up in investment scams, fake invoices, corrupt contracting, bogus charities, identity theft rings, and corporate coverups. The reason is simple:...

Obstruction of Justice, Explained

In the movies, obstruction of justice usually looks like a panicked cover-up. A shredded file. A hush-money exchange. A witness who suddenly “can’t remember.” In federal court, it is less cinematic and more structural. Obstruction is not a single crime. It is a family of statutes that punish...

Federal Conspiracy Charges Explained

Federal conspiracy is one of those charges that sounds like it belongs in spy movies, but it shows up in everyday indictments: fraud, drugs, public corruption, immigration, protest cases, even market manipulation. It is also one of the government’s most flexible tools, because it lets prosecutors...

Monell Liability Explained

You can sue a police officer for violating the Constitution. That part is familiar. Suing the city is where people get blindsided. Most of us assume the government “owns” what its employees do. In everyday life, employers are often responsible for employees under a doctrine called respondeat...

SpeechNow.org v. FEC Explained

Super PACs did not appear out of nowhere in 2010. They grew out of a specific legal conclusion: if a group is making independent expenditures , meaning it is not coordinating its spending with a candidate, then limiting how much people can give to that group starts to look less like corruption...

You can legally buy an entire season of courtside tickets and no one calls it speech. But give money to politics and the Supreme Court treats it as a First Amendment problem. McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission (2014) is a major campaign finance case, not because it invented a new right, but...

Midterm elections are a product of the Constitution’s staggered election cycles: the United States does not hand one election a four-year blank check. The House of Representatives turns over every two years. The Senate turns over in thirds. Put together, midterms force the national government to...