Constitutional Topics

Asylum Interviews and Direct Referrals: What the Shift Would Mean

Asylum law has a familiar rhythm in the public imagination. You apply. You sit for an interview with a federal officer. You wait. And then, if the government says no, you ask a judge to review it. But that “first step” is not guaranteed by the Constitution, and it is not the only way the system can...

When State Tuition Laws Hit Federal Limits

States often describe immigration as a federal job until a local policy goal puts them in the middle of it. That tension shows up again and again in a familiar fight: can a state let certain undocumented students pay in-state tuition or receive state financial aid? The constitutional engine behind...

Can a Federal Judge Block Deportations After the Supreme Court Weighs In?

When you see headlines saying a federal judge “blocked deportations” even after the Supreme Court weighed in, it can sound like an open act of defiance. Constitutionally, it is usually something more ordinary and more confusing: different courts acting at different procedural moments, sometimes...

Can a President Ban Mail-In Voting?

When courts block a presidential executive order aimed at mail-in voting, it is tempting to treat it like a political headline. Constitutionally, it is something more basic: a reminder that American elections are not run by presidential decree. The question underneath the news is simple and...

What Is TPS and Can a Federal Judge Defy the Supreme Court?

Temporary Protected Status , or TPS, has a name that sounds like a constitutional guarantee. It is not. TPS is a statutory tool Congress created and the executive branch administers, with federal courts acting as referees when people argue the government did not follow the law. TPS and DACA are...

Can a President Order Signs Outside the Smithsonian?

The headline version of this story is simple: for example, imagine a president issues an executive order directing executive-branch officials to place signs on federally managed walkways near Smithsonian museums , pointing visitors to a White House report criticizing how American history is...

What Is the War Powers Resolution?

The Constitution gives Americans a comforting civics myth: Congress declares war, the president fights it. In real life, the order is often reversed. Presidents initiate, Congress reacts, and everyone argues about what the Founders “really meant.” This article was prompted by a familiar kind of...

Alien Terrorist Removal Court Explained: Visas, Speech, and Removal Power

Some government powers feel absolute until you look closely at how they are built. The federal government has broad authority over immigration. It can deny visas. It can remove noncitizens. It can treat certain noncitizens as national security threats. But in practice, the executive still has to...

DOJ Religious Liberty Guidance, Explained

When the Department of Justice releases “religious liberty guidance,” it is not passing a new law. It is issuing an internal policy document that tells executive branch lawyers and program officials how DOJ believes the Constitution and federal statutes should be applied before the next lawsuit...

Are Sanctuary Cities Constitutional?

“Sanctuary city” sounds like a moral label. In court, it is usually something much more technical: a fight over who has to do the work. Immigration law and removal decisions are federal power. But the day-to-day machinery of policing and jail operations is mostly state and local. That tension is...

What Is a Congressional Criminal Referral?

A “criminal referral” from Congress sounds like the beginning of a prosecution. It is not. It is closer to a formal request backed by an allegation: a committee says, in writing, that it believes evidence suggests a federal crime, and it asks the Department of Justice to take a look. That...

Can the President Order Military Strikes Without Congress?

The modern argument over war powers usually starts with a simple sentence: the president is commander in chief. Then someone points to a different simple sentence: Congress declares war. Those two ideas can coexist, but they do not always fit neatly together, especially when a president threatens...

Who Can Legally Vote in U.S. Elections? Citizenship Rules Explained

Every election cycle, a familiar alarm goes off: foreigners are voting . Sometimes the claim is exaggerated. Sometimes it is a real administrative failure, like a voter-registration system that let non-citizens slip onto the rolls. But the legal question underneath the heat is steady and...

Hegseth vs. the Senate: War Funding, Oversight, and the Constitution’s Hardest Question

Two different clips from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s July 21, 2026 Senate testimony went viral for two different reasons. In one, he accused senators of moral theater: sending multiple supplemental packages abroad while, in his telling, treating urgent funding for American troops as a partisan...

Smithfield Foods, Chinese Ownership, and the ICE Raid Argument

Smithfield Foods is trending for a reason that sounds like a punchline but is actually a civics exam: What happens when the nation’s biggest pork processor is owned by a foreign company, relies on an industry labor model that routinely draws immigration scrutiny, and becomes the target of viral...

Can the President Direct Annual Research Funds?

The federal government spends roughly $200 billion a year on research and development. That scale is exactly why the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s new action matters: OSTP released a new report and memo Tuesday that it says will help shape that annual R&D budget across the...

Can the President Impose Tariffs on Generic Drugs?

Tariffs feel like a presidential weapon because presidents announce them like one. A rate. A date. A target. A promise that factories will come home. But constitutionally, tariffs start as a legislative power. Article I gives Congress authority to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and...

When Disapproval Outruns Approval

“Net negative” sounds like a financial term, the kind you use when a company is losing money. In politics it means something simpler and, in a way, more revealing: more Americans say they disapprove of a president’s job performance than approve of it. Recent national polling has put President...

Can Congress Cancel Student Visas by Nationality?

You can feel the question hiding underneath the headline: can the United States legally cancel student visas for people from one country , just because of where they are from? That question came roaring back after Rep. Anna Paulina Luna publicly called on the State Department to take action on F-1...

Who Owns the Constitution?

Every few years, Americans stumble back into the same argument like it is a bar fight we never finished: Who actually gets the final say on what the Constitution means? Most people answer with a shrug and a single word: the Supreme Court. Nine justices. Black robes. End of story. But the...