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Politics-The Conversation
Trump treats laws as obstacles, not limits − and the only real check on his rule-breaking can come from political pressure
The most meaningful check on presidential power in the Trump era will be political. That’s because courts rely on the broader political system for enf...
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Independence Hall, Gettysburg and – Epcot? How Reagan helped elevate Disney to America’s roster of honored patriotic sites
Disney parks have become stops on a secular pilgrimage made by presidents and ordinary citizens alike, places to understand what it means to be an Ame...
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Cultivating obedience: Using the Justice Department to attack former officials consolidates power and deters dissent
Trump’s use of the Justice Department to target political opponents goes beyond revenge − it deters current officials from defying the president.
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Birthright citizenship case at Supreme Court reveals deeper questions about judicial authority to halt unlawful policies
Arguments before the US Supreme Court on birthright citizenship – awarded to those born in the US – actually focused on the power of federal judges to...
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Congress began losing power decades ago − and now it’s giving away what remains to Trump
Congress − the first branch of government listed in the Constitution − has been relegated to second-class status.
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Detroit’s next mayor can do these 3 things to support neighborhoods beyond downtown
Building a stronger Detroit means stabilizing housing, using vacant land to benefit the public and investing in social infrastructure.
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Trump is making it easier to fire federal workers, but they have some legal protections - 3 essential reads
Since the 1800s, Congress has enacted laws to ensure that federal workers are hired on the basis of their professional qualifications - not their poli...
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How redefining just one word could strip the Endangered Species Act’s ability to protect vital habitat
The public has until May 19 to weigh in on a Trump administration plan that would leave many endangered species at much greater risk.
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Trump moves to gut low-income energy assistance as summer heat descends and electricity prices rise
The problem of high energy prices and rising numbers of people unable to afford them isn’t lost on the Trump administration.
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Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship heads to the Supreme Court
Three federal judges have struck down Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship since he signed it in January 2025. Now, the Supreme Court wil...
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From defenders to skeptics: The sharp decline in young Americans’ support for free speech
Americans across all generations still value free speech. But for younger Americans, especially, that support is less strong and seems increasingly co...
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In death penalty cases, the quest for justice is not America’s highest value
The Supreme Court has ruled that executing the innocent does not violate the Constitution, but some states allow people convicted of crimes to bring a...
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How William Howard Taft’s approach to government efficiency differed from Elon Musk’s slash-and-burn tactics
Musk’s slashing of government jobs, programs and departments isn’t the first effort by a president’s appointee to streamline government. William Howar...
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How the Take It Down Act tackles nonconsensual deepfake porn − and how it falls short
A bill with broad bipartisan support aims to take on AI-generated sexual abuse, but enforcement issues and privacy blind spots could leave victims jus...
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FDR united Democrats under the banner of ‘liberalism’ − but today’s Democratic Party has nothing to put on its hat
Republicans have a leader, Donald Trump; a banner, MAGA; and a song, ‘God Bless the USA.’ Democrats have nothing like this.
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How proposed changes to higher education accreditation could impact campus diversity efforts
President Trump wants to change the higher education accreditation process by asking accreditors to root out ‘ideological bias’ and roll back DEI init...
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Trump speaking poorly of other presidents is uncommon, but not unheard of, in American presidential history
Americans often expect former presidents to not talk about current ones. But it’s not really a surprise that several are criticizing Donald Trump.
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Even judges appointed by Trump are ruling against him
Instead of upholding Trump administration policies, federal judges − including Trump appointees − are blocking much of Trump’s second-term agenda. It’...
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Peace Corps isn’t just about helping others − it’s a key part of US public diplomacy
The Peace Corps isn’t doing the same foreign policy work the State Department carries out. But it still helps the American brand internationally.
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Predictive policing AI is on the rise − making it accountable to the public could curb its harmful effects
AI that anticipates where crimes are likely to occur and who might commit them has a troubling track record. Democratic accountability could shine a l...
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National security advisers manage decision-making as advocates or honest brokers
In foreign affairs, the national security adviser plays a coordinating role, setting the flow of recommendations to the National Security Council and ...
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation case is more about individual rights than the Trump administration’s foreign policy
The Trump administration claims that judges’ orders in the cases of immigrants deported to a prison in El Salvador intrude on the president’s right to...
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What is the biggest gaffe, blooper or blunder that a recent president has made? It may depend on what your definition of ‘is’ is
Turns out, presidents − just like the rest of us − sometimes say embarrassing things. Or mean things. Or clueless things. Certainly things they regret...
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What is the stupidest thing a recent president has said? It may depend on what your definition of ‘is’ is
Turns out, presidents − just like the rest of us − sometimes say embarrassing things. Or mean things. Or clueless things. Certainly things they regret...
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When presidents try to make peace: What Trump could learn from Teddy Roosevelt, Carter, Clinton and his own first term
Donald Trump isn’t the first US president to try to negotiate a peace deal. But he appears to be doing it differently than others.
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A law seeks to protect children from sex offenders − 20 years later, the jury is still out
46 states have enacted a law that aims to reduce sexual offenders’ ability to re-offend, but the results have been mixed.
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Deporting international students risks making the US a less attractive destination, putting its economic engine at risk
Student visa holders face high levels of vetting and monitoring. Escalating those protocols will redirect students to other countries and weaken US gl...
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Guns in America: A liberal gun-owning sociologist offers 5 observations to understand America’s culture of firearms
A scholar who became a gun owner later in life found there is more to firearms than criminal violence, injury and death, and more to gun culture than ...
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Pandas and politics − from World War II to the Cold War, zoos have always been ideological
Zoos aren’t woke, but they aren’t politically neutral, either.
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The legal limits of Trump’s crackdown on sanctuary cities like Philadelphia
Philadelphia’s sanctuary policy remains in place, for now, as Trump vows to terminate federal grants to sanctuary cities.
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From the Chinese Exclusion Act to pro-Palestinian activists: The evolution of politically motivated deportations
An immigration historian says removal orders targeting student activists echo America’s long past of jailing and expelling immigrants because of their...
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How Trump promotes a radical, unscientific theory about sex and gender in the name of opposing ‘gender ideology extremism’
A gender studies expert explains why the Trump administration’s claim that everyone is male or female defies science and ignores the complexity of hum...
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Trump’s first 100 days show him dictating the terms of press coverage − following Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán’s playbook for media control
In his second term, President Donald Trump asserted new control over the press − as Hungary’s strongman leader Viktor Orbán had urged him to do.
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Detroit’s lack of affordable housing pushes families to the edge - and children sometime pay the price
Fewer people in Detroit are experiencing homelessness – but more kids are. Of those kids, a growing number have no safe place to sleep inside.
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Florida, once considered a swing state, is firmly Republican – a social anthropologist explains what caused this shift
The growth of alt-right activist groups and the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic are two factors that help explain Florida’s politics.
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Trump’s aggressive actions against free speech speak a lot louder than his words defending it
President Donald Trump has said that free speech matters to him. But his record during his second presidential term doesn’t show that commitment.
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Memes and conflict: Study shows surge of imagery and fakes can precede international and political violence
Visual content, including manipulated images, is a staple of propaganda and political messaging. AI analysis shows that a surge of these memes can pre...
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Justice Department lawyers work for justice and the Constitution – not the White House
Some Department of Justice attorneys have recently been fired or have resigned, refusing to follow directives from the Trump administration that they ...
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From help to harm: How the government is quietly repurposing everyone’s data for surveillance
Under the guise of efficiency and fraud prevention, the federal government is breaking down data silos to collect and aggregate information on virtual...
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Trump is stripping protections from marine protected areas – why that’s a problem for fishing’s future, and for whales, corals and other ocean life
America’s marine protected areas help fish populations thrive. Trump’s plan to open them to industrial fishing may ultimately harm the fishing industr...
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Habeas corpus: A thousand-year-old legal principle for defending rights that’s getting a workout under the Trump administration
Habeas corpus – a Latin phrase meaning ‘you shall have the body’ – protects any person, whether citizen or not, from being illegally confined. It’s a ...
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A warning for Democrats from the Gilded Age and the 1896 election
Effective Republican organizing and intraparty divisions among Democrats solidified GOP political dominance until the 1930s.
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I study local government and Hurricane Helene forced me from my home − here’s how rural towns and counties in North Carolina and beyond cooperate to r...
The Trump administration wants to abolish FEMA and hand disaster recovery over to states. But local officials are best positioned to help local people...
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Some politicians who share harmful information are rewarded with more clicks, study finds
A study of US state legislators found that posting misinformation online was a winning strategy for boosting a politician’s visibility – but not for D...
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Lawful permanent residents like Mahmoud Khalil have a right to freedom of speech – but does that protect them from deportation?
The Trump administration says it can deport noncitizen students that create foreign security threats. The Supreme Court might ultimately decide the li...
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