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Democracy & the Rule of Law blog
How the National Emergencies Act of 1976 Works and Why Congress Rarely Ends One From the 2019 border wall emergency back to a 1970s Senate discovery, how presidents declare national emergencies, how they are renewed, and why a veto blocks almost every attempt to end one. Reconstruction's Black Lawmakers and the Backlash That Ended Their Era How hundreds of Black men won office across the South after the Civil War, what they built, and how violence, fraud and federal retreat drove them out within a generation. Section 702 Explained: Foreign Intelligence, American Emails and the Warrant Fight How the surveillance program known as Section 702 collects foreign communications, why Americans' messages end up in the database, and why a warrant rule lost in the House on a tie in 2024. The 1917 Cloture Rule and Wilson's Little Group of Willful Men How a filibuster against arming merchant ships in March 1917 gave the Senate its first cloture rule, and why that two-thirds bar still shapes what a Democratic majority can pass. Abortion Ballot Measures Since Dobbs and What Voters Decided From Ohio's Issue 1 in 2023 through the ten states that voted in 2024, a guide to the abortion measures that passed and failed, and to how legislatures tried to change the rules. April 25, 2014, the Day Flint Switched Its Water Source How a cost-saving decision made under a state-appointed emergency manager poisoned a Michigan city's water, why the warnings were ignored for 18 months, and what changed afterward. From the 2019 Letter to the 2022 Release: The Fight for Trump's Tax Returns A 1924 law says the IRS shall hand any tax return to Congress's tax writers. Here is how one request in 2019 took nearly four years to fulfil, and what that delay teaches a new majority. How a Congressional Subpoena Works and What Happens When Someone Ignores It Steve Bannon's 2022 conviction shows the three ways Congress can enforce a subpoena, why each is slow, and what a new majority can realistically do when witnesses refuse. How the Emergency Docket Became a Second Supreme Court What stays, applications and unsigned orders are, how a term coined in a 2015 law review article came to describe a parallel Court, and why it now decides fights over presidential power. Kansas Voters Rejected an Abortion Amendment in August 2022 Six weeks after Dobbs, voters in deeply Republican Kansas defeated an amendment to remove abortion protections. How the campaign was won and what it taught every ballot fight since. Katz v. United States and the Phone Booth That Made Privacy Constitutional How a gambler's calls from a Los Angeles phone booth led the Supreme Court in 1967 to rule that the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places, and why that idea now governs phones and data. Marbury v. Madison and the 1803 Ruling That Gave Courts the Last Word How a stack of undelivered commissions from John Adams's last night in office became the case that let federal courts strike down laws, and why that power still decides our fights. South Dakota, Oregon and the Progressive Invention of the Ballot Initiative How South Dakota in 1898 and Oregon's William U'Ren invented the citizen initiative, how the tool works step by step today, and why legislatures keep trying to rein it in. Teapot Dome and the Supreme Court Case That Gave Congressional Subpoenas Teeth A 1920s oil-lease scandal, a stubborn Ohio banker and a 1927 Supreme Court ruling explain why Congress can force people to testify, and why that power matters again. The 2007 Walter Reed Hearings and Oversight That Changed a Hospital A newspaper found wounded soldiers living with mold and mice; a new House majority held its hearing on the hospital grounds. Here is why that oversight worked, and how to repeat it. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and Its Revival in 2025 How a 1798 wartime law was used in March 2025 to fly Venezuelan men to a Salvadoran prison, what the statute actually says, and what the Supreme Court required before anyone else could be removed. The Church Committee of 1975 and the Secrets It Pulled Into the Light In 1975 a Senate committee exposed FBI campaigns against activists and CIA plots to kill foreign leaders. What it found, how it worked, and the reforms we still rely on. The Friday Night Firing of More Than a Dozen Inspectors General in January 2025 On January 24, 2025, the White House dismissed about seventeen inspectors general by email. Here is the notice law it skipped, the precedents, and what the watchdogs did next. The Hatch Act of 1939 and the Line Between Government Work and Campaigning How a 1938 scandal over relief jobs and votes in Kentucky produced the Hatch Act, what federal workers may and may not do in politics today, and why enforcement depends on who is watching. The Iran-Contra Hearings and How a New Majority Ran Televised Oversight What the 1987 Iran-Contra hearings uncovered, how granting immunity to Oliver North backfired, and what a new congressional majority can learn about oversight that lasts. The June 2025 Strikes on Iran and the War Powers Question Congress Left Open In June 2025 the US bombed Iran's nuclear sites without asking Congress, and the Senate declined to object. What the law says, what each side argued, and what remains unsettled. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 and the Veto Congress Overrode How Congress overrode Richard Nixon to pass the War Powers Resolution in November 1973, what the law requires, and why presidents of both parties have pushed past it. The Wilmington Coup of 1898 and an Elected Government Driven Out by Force How an armed white mob overthrew Wilmington, North Carolina's elected biracial government in November 1898, why no one was punished, and what it teaches about protecting elections. What Biden's Supreme Court Commission Found, and What It Left Unsaid A close reading of the 2021 Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court: what it concluded about expansion and term limits, what it declined to decide, and what happened next. Why Immigration Courts Answer to the Attorney General Immigration judges work for the Justice Department, and the Attorney General can rewrite their law with a single decision. Here is how that structure works and why reformers want to change it.