The U.S. Constitution

Trump, Flock Cameras, and the New License-Plate Panopticon

President Donald Trump has signaled he is comfortable with a rapidly expanding form of public surveillance: automated license plate readers, often called ALPRs. Asked about the cameras made popular by companies like Flock Safety, Trump told reporters, “I sort of like them because of that, because...

Buttigieg and Court-Packing: A Partisan Fix or a Constitutional Reset?

Pete Buttigieg has put a once-fringe idea back in the center of the Democratic conversation: expanding the Supreme Court. His basic claim is blunt. The Court has become, in his words, a “nakedly partisan institution.” And his proposed cure is not subtle either: add six seats to the current nine....

When Mass Surveillance Becomes the Shortcut

Here is the question I would put on the board if I still had my classroom: What happens to the Fourth Amendment when the police stop searching for evidence and start searching a database? For most of American history, a “search” looked like a person. An officer turned a doorknob, opened a drawer,...

What Supreme Court Fights Over Nationwide Injunctions Mean

When the Supreme Court “refuses to act,” it can sound like the justices quietly decided a case on the merits. In reality, much of the Court’s high-profile work happens on an emergency track where the Court is simply deciding whether to step in right now , with limited briefing, a limited record,...

Can the EPA Roll Back Biden’s Carbon Rules?

The Environmental Protection Agency can propose to repeal Biden-era carbon pollution standards. It can even finalize a repeal. The harder question is whether the repeal survives the legal machinery that governs modern federal power: the Clean Air Act’s text, the Administrative Procedure Act’s...

Can Congress Count Only Citizens for House Seats?

The House of Representatives is supposed to represent people, not paperwork. That sounds like a slogan, but it is also the Constitution’s basic design for apportionment: count the population, then divide the seats. So when a new proposal floats the idea of counting only citizens for House seats, it...

Can the President Cut FEMA Staff? What the Law Allows

When federal judges block federal workforce plans at agencies like FEMA, the headlines are easy to misunderstand. It can sound like a court just “stopped cuts” or “saved the agency.” What is usually happening is narrower and more constitutional: a judge is policing who has legal authority to make...

Who Regulates AI in the U.S.?

Every few months, a familiar claim comes roaring back into American politics: AI is so consequential that it needs one thing above all else, a strong president to “keep it under control.” The Constitution does not work that way. Not because the Founders predicted large language models, but because...

What Is the USVSST Fund and Why 9/11 Families Want Congress to Act

When 9/11 families come to Washington with a deadline on the calendar, it is usually because something very old and very constitutional is happening again: a federal program depends on Congress to keep its legal authority and funding mechanisms in place. The program at the center of the latest push...

Alien Terrorist Removal Court, Explained

Most immigration removals happen in the ordinary system: a Department of Homeland Security trial attorney in an immigration court, an immigration judge in the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), and an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. That is the...

Can a Green Card Holder Vote? The Law on Illegal Voting and Election Crimes

Every election cycle produces the same jolt of confusion: a headline about a noncitizen accused of voting , followed by a wave of questions about whether the law actually forbids it, how anyone gets caught, and who has the power to prosecute. The short answer is straightforward. A green card holder...

Why Senate Crypto Bills Are Turning Into an Ethics Fight

Crypto regulation is one of those issues that sounds technical until it collides with something everyone understands instantly: self-dealing. That is why the Senate’s recurring debate over major crypto “market structure” bills is not only a fight about how to classify digital assets or which agency...

Who Controls the Smithsonian? What a President Can and Cannot Do About Museum Exhibits

You can feel the constitutional confusion in the question itself: Who controls the Smithsonian? It looks federal. It sits on the National Mall. It receives federal money. It holds some of the most symbolically charged artifacts in the country. So when a president (or any prominent political figure)...

SCOTUS Hits Pause on Missouri’s Map

The Supreme Court just did something that looks small on paper but looms large in practice: it pressed pause on a federal judge’s order about Missouri’s congressional map. That pause does not decide who is right on the merits, but it does help decide which set of district lines will govern the...

25 Years After 9/11: Citizenship, Unity, and the Constitution

Twenty-five years after Sept. 11, 2001, the phrase “never forget” still lands with force. But as a librarian, I think the more useful question is: what exactly are we promising not to forget ? We can remember the date and still miss the lesson. We can remember the politics and still lose sight of...

Can a Judge Help Someone Avoid ICE? What the Massachusetts Reprimand Means

A Massachusetts judge has been publicly reprimanded after allegations that a defendant avoided federal immigration agents connected to her courtroom. The headline version is easy: a state judge, ICE, a missing defendant, and a disciplinary order. The constitutional version is harder, and more...

Why Detention Cases Invoke Japanese Internment

When a federal court invokes the World War II internment of Japanese Americans in a modern detention dispute, it is not reaching for a dramatic metaphor. It is reaching for a constitutional warning label. The internment era represents a familiar pattern in American law: sweeping confinement...

Can a Law School Favor Some Applicants Over Others? The Admissions Fight Explained

A recent federal inquiry involving the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law) is being framed as a simple question: did the school favor Black applicants over White and Asian applicants? Public reporting and official statements around an inquiry like this can be thin at the...

What Is the $5,000 Dividend Proposal and Can It Actually Happen?

The idea is getting repeated like it is a button a president can press: collect money at the border, then send every taxpayer a $5,000 “dividend.” It sounds like a rebate. It is framed like a reward. And it is being argued over like it is either obvious populism or obvious heresy. But the...

Can Corrupt Politician Money Do Good?

You can tell yourself a lot of comforting things about corruption if you choose the right ending. It is amazing what the brain will forgive when the last scene is a child going home from the hospital. I met Senator Grant Halstead (Real Name Excluded) in a place that was not on his official...