News

A Digital Constitution Archive Worth Building

Every few years we watch the same national ritual: a public official holds up the Constitution like a prop, a pundit invokes “what the framers intended,” and a classroom of teenagers asks the most honest question of all. “Where does it actually say that?” That question is the beating heart...

Congress Pauses Epstein Hearings, and Oversight Starts to Look Optional

Congress does not have to win a criminal case to do its job. It does not have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. It does not even have to name a defendant. Its job is simpler and, in a functioning republic, more relentless: find facts, expose failures, and fix the laws that allowed those...

Congress Hits Pause on Epstein Hearings

Congressional oversight is supposed to work like sunlight. A committee announces witnesses, sets a timetable, and the public gets to watch the government do what the Constitution quietly expects it to do: investigate, inform, and legislate with facts rather than rumors. So when the House Oversight...

Can a Secretary Dismantle the Department of Education?

The U.S. Constitution does not create a right to education. It does not assign schooling to Washington. And it does not mention a federal Department of Education. In practice, that has helped leave primary responsibility for schools with the states. That said, the modern federal education state is...

Senate Border Funding Push: Enforcement, Shutdown Pressure, and Taxpayer Stakes

Washington loves to pretend a “shutdown” is a single switch that flips to OFF. It is not. It is a pressure chamber, and when funding talks stall, that pressure tends to show up first in departments built for constant operations. One concrete way this can bite: when funding is unsettled,...

Federal Court Halts Arkansas Act 900 in NetChoice Challenge

Arkansas tried, once again, to reshape how social media works for young people. And once again, a federal court stepped in. In NetChoice LLC v. Griffin , a judge in the Western District of Arkansas issued a preliminary injunction against Arkansas Act 900 of 2025, concluding that major parts of the...

How Much Power Should an Attorney General Use to Reshape Gun Enforcement?

When Americans talk about “gun policy,” they often picture Congress passing a law. But a large share of day-to-day Second Amendment enforcement flows through the Department of Justice and its sub-agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). That reality is at the...

Supreme Court to Hear Green Card Case on Charges

For many families, a green card represents stability: the ability to live and work in the United States on a long-term basis and to build a life with fewer immigration uncertainties. But lawful permanent residence is not the same as citizenship. One major difference is that the federal government...

When the Court Leaks

For most of American history, the Supreme Court has asked the public for patience. Read the opinions, follow the reasoning, accept the result, even if you hate it. That bargain is not written into the Constitution, but it is the cultural glue that has kept nine unelected lawyers from looking like...

Virginia Democrats’ referendum would rewrite redistricting rules for a 10–1 map

Virginia is holding a rare kind of election with national consequences: a statewide referendum that would change the rules for drawing congressional districts and immediately swap in a new set of lines that could reshape who represents the Commonwealth in the U.S. House. The proposed map is not...

SCOTUS to Weigh Funding for Schools That Reject Same-Sex Parents

The Supreme Court just agreed Monday to hear a case that sounds, on the surface, like a narrow fight over preschool paperwork. It is not narrow. It is a live question about what Americans mean when we say “religious liberty,” and what we mean when we say equal access, even when the legal fight...

The Tariff Refund Portal Is Live. Don’t Expect a Check in Your Mailbox.

When the Supreme Court struck down the Trump administration’s emergency tariffs earlier this year, a lot of Americans heard one simple idea: those tariffs are gone, so the government has to give the money back . True, as far as it goes. But the more uncomfortable civics question is this: who...

Supreme Court to Weigh Colorado’s Pre-K Rules and Catholic Schools

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a Colorado dispute that sits at a familiar constitutional crossroads: when a state offers public benefits to private groups, how far can it go in setting the terms without crossing the First Amendment’s protections for religious exercise? The case arises from...

Judge: DOJ and DHS Likely Coerced Platforms To Remove ICE-Tracking Speech

A federal judge has signaled that federal officials may have crossed a constitutional line when they urged major tech companies to remove online tools used to share information about immigration enforcement activity. In a preliminary ruling, U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso found that the...

New Jersey’s Nonprofit Squeeze Reaches the Supreme Court

There are two ways to silence a civic group. You can ban what it says. That is the blunt instrument. Courts recognize it on sight. Or you can bury it in paperwork, deadlines, disclosures, and penalties until the easiest path is to stop speaking at all. That version looks like “regulation.” It...

When the Government Asks Apple to Censor

Most Americans understand censorship as something the government does directly. A law is passed. A speaker is fined. A publication is seized. But the Constitution has always been haunted by a more modern temptation: the government does not have to ban speech itself if it can get someone else to do...

DOJ Seeks Wayne County’s 2024 Ballots

The U.S. Department of Justice has demanded that Wayne County, Michigan, produce materials from the November 2024 election, including all ballots along with supporting paperwork like ballot receipts and ballot envelopes. The request, delivered in an April 14 letter, gives the county 14 days to...

Alito and Thomas Staying Put, for Now

In Washington, the loudest Supreme Court news is often the news that does not happen. Multiple sources now indicate that Justice Samuel Alito is not expected to step down this term. The term lasts until the Court’s new year begins in October. Alito, who is 76, has already hired all four law...

Navy Seizes Iranian Ship in the Strait: War Powers and the Escalation Risk

The Strait of Hormuz is not just a narrow stretch of water. It is a pressure point where global commerce, regional rivalries, and U.S. constitutional limits collide. On April 19, 2026, U.S. Central Command released video showing the destroyer USS Spruance firing on an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel...

When Schools Keep Gender Identity Secret From Parents

Across the country, families are learning a hard civics lesson: the most emotional school debates are often the ones with the most complicated lines of authority. Who decides what a school can keep from parents about a child’s gender identity? When does student privacy matter most? And where,...