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Most kids don’t know their rights. New book aims to fix that
Iowa City native and former public defender Emily Galvin Almanza has written “Andromeda Diaz and the Reasonable Doubt,” a middle-grade mystery to teach kids their constitutional rights and the power of due process.
Amending Virginia: Virginians may change the voter rights restoration process for felons
Watch the fourth episode of our limited series on constitutional amendments now.
ICE raids spark division in Indianapolis as federal policies change
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents launched a series of raids across Indianapolis, sparking intense political debate between local leaders who condemned the actions as cruel and federal supporters who defended them as a constitutional responsibility.
Flock cameras become midterm campaign target as voters balk at tech companies' power
Although police say the cameras are an invaluable crime-fighting tool, some critics say their pervasiveness amounts to unconstitutional warrantless mass surveillance.
You don't have a right to safe drinking water, US court rules
A Trump-appointed judge also said Americans have no “constitutional right to truthful information” during a public health crisis.
Law and Justice Is Weak... But the Right Can Rule in Poland
‘Law and Justice has always been a centre-right party, a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists…a pro-American group supporting the Republican Party…and situated within the spectrum of the “traditional” political divide. In recent years, movements have emerged in Polish politics that have challenged Law and Justice’s hegemony on the right.’
KFile: Swing-seat Democrat deleted posts envisioning ‘a world without police and prisons’
William Lawrence, the Democratic nominee in one of the country’s most competitive House races in Michigan, deleted hundreds of old social media posts in which he embraced police and prison abolition, called for nationalizing fossil-fuel companies to end their production, attacked moderate Democrats and argued for a “fundamental overhaul” of the Constitution.
No license, no inspection, no accountability — who is protecting women?
In early August, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed into law expansion of abortion from 24 weeks through the entire pregnancy. While many celebrated, Colorado serves as a staunch warning of the unintended consequences of unrestricted, unregulated abortion. Whether pro-life or pro-choice, Coloradans agree women deserve high-quality, safe, compassionate care. Colorado voters mistakenly believed a constitutional right to […]
Maryland Supreme Court puts redistricting question back on ballot
The Supreme Court of Maryland issued its ruling just hours after hearing oral arguments for and against the proposed constitutional amendment.
Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Allow Mail Voting Limits
The justices have been asked to weigh in again on the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict mail voting — this time on whether the plans violate the Constitution.
House Democrats block constitutional amendment on Supreme Court size
The Republican-led resolution, which requires two-thirds support in the House and Senate, comes in response to increasing openness among Democrats to expand the court.
Political adversaries join forces, urge Michiganders to vote "no" on state constitutional convention
The current state constitution requires asking Michiganders every 16 years to decide if they want to totally rewrite the constitution.
Republicans fail to ease one of Trump's greatest fears as Supreme Court measure collapses
House Democrats blocked a constitutional amendment to cap Supreme Court justices at nine after President Donald Trump warned of future court packing.
US says it will use regional body to isolate Nicaragua
Move comes after Nicaragua's lawmakers change constitution to ban most political opposition.
Colorado redistricting limits measure heads to November ballot
A proposed constitutional amendment that would prohibit Colorado’s congressional maps from being redrawn outside of election cycles has qualified for the November ballot, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Under Initiative 256, redistricting changes for the 2028 election and beyond would be prohibited unless approved by the Congressional Redistricting Commission and the Supreme Court. […]
In Texas, ordinary Muslim religious practices are increasingly being treated as political threats
After 9/11, suspicion of Islam hardened into an assumption in Texas that Muslim identity itself signals danger, writes a scholar of constitutional law.
Sex-based constitutional restriction on Nebraska K-12, collegiate sports qualifies for ballot
A ballot measure that would let Nebraska voters decide whether to constitutionally limit sports participation in public K-12 schools and colleges to teams that are biologically male, female or co-ed will be on the November ballot, the state’s top election official announced Friday.
One question about the Constitution puts liberals’ appetite for sweeping change to the test
March on Washington activists called to abolish the Senate and rewrite the Constitution while pushing Zohran Mamdani-style socialist policies.
Sex-based constitutional restriction on Nebraska K-12, collegiate sports qualifies for ballot
Nebraska Secretary of State announced the conservative-leaning group behind the measure collected at least 138,613 valid signatures.
Coalition drops Colorado transportation ballot measure after securing deal
The proposed constitutional amendment seeking to dedicate all transportation-related revenue to Colorado’s roads and bridges will no longer appear in this November’s ballot after its proponents reached an agreement with lawmakers following months of negotiations. Initiative No. 175, backed by the coalition Restore Our Roads, would have required that all transportation-related revenue be used exclusively […]
Blue states should avoid disasters
Back when I was teaching political science at the U.S. Air Force Academy (and amazingly to me, a week from this column’s publication will mark 20 years since my retirement from active duty. Where the heck did that time go?) I used to teach my students about the Constitution, national security policy and little things […]
Colorado voters will decide fate of ‘right to hunt’ proposal
Colorado’s election office said Thursday that a proposal to add a constitutional right to hunting and fishing has qualified for the November ballot. Backed by the International Order of T. Roosevelt, a group dedicated to preserving the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, Initiative No. 302 would amend the Colorado Constitution to include language establishing […]
Editorial: How the media can earn back America’s trust
The freedom of the press is one of America’s greatest protections against unchecked power. But freedom carries responsibility, and journalism cannot demand the public’s trust simply because the Constitution protects
Westcott Theater lawyer argues city’s entertainment license rules unconstitutional
Owner can occupy the building but licenses continue to be denied.
Westcott Theater lawyer argues city’s entertainment license rules unconstitutional
Owner can occupy the building but licenses continue to be denied.
Constitutional Politics in Action – Part I: The Petitions for the Constitutional Review of the 16th and the 17th Amendments of the Hungarian Fundamental Law
The Fidesz-KDNP parliamentary group submitted petitions to the Constitutional Court in July 2026 challenging Hungary’s newly adopted Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments. The petitions demonstrate how constitutional doctrine can be strategically reconfigured when political actors move from exercising constitutional power to challenging its exercise by others. After losing control of constitutional power, Fidesz strategically reconfigures elements of domestic doctrine that had been used to resist its own autocratization.
Houston's minority business contracting program should be reinstated, city says in appeal
Houston's minority business contracting program should be allowed to keep operating, city officials said in appealing a federal ruling finding the program's "racial aspect" unconstitutional.
Houston appeals block on minority business contracting program
Houston’s minority business contracting program should be allowed to keep operating, city officials said in appealing a federal ruling finding the program's “racial aspect” unconstitutional.
THE WEEK OF AUG 17, 2026
- NOAA pulls support for Arctic Report Card - DOJ finds NSF programs unconstitutional - Admin again calls for higher-ed reforms
Colorado, like America, past due for generational change in politics
I was 27 before I ever voted for president. At 19, in 1964, the Constitution had not yet been amended establishing 18-year-old voting eligibility. In 1968, I was serving overseas with the U.S. Navy at a time when there was little effort to assist sailors or soldiers in obtaining an absentee ballot. Fortunately, that’s changed […]
Idaho must allow abortions to preserve women's health, US judge rules
A U.S. judge has ruled that Idaho's near-total abortion ban is unconstitutional because it provides exceptions when abortions are life-saving and not for broader risks to pregnant women's health.
DOJ Declares 3 Race-Based STEM Programs Unconstitutional
The programs received about $104 million in federal funds this past year.
The Constitution at a standstill: From the Politics Desk
Plus, the latest from the Iran war at home and at sea.
Lawsuit seeks to ban Trump Media from charging for early access to posts
The lawsuit alleges the service to offer paying customers sneak peeks violates the Constitution
Hunting is a privilege, not a constitutional right
By Roland Halpern Colorado voters may soon be asked to place hunting and fishing in the state constitution. Proposition 302 would establish the right to hunt, fish and take wildlife using “traditional methods,” while declaring hunting and fishing are the state’s preferred means of managing wildlife. But though hunting and fishing are an important management […]
Hunting is a privilege, not a constitutional right
By Roland Halpern Colorado voters may soon be asked to place hunting and fishing in the state constitution. Proposition 302 would establish the right to hunt, fish and take wildlife using “traditional methods,” while declaring hunting and fishing are the state’s preferred means of managing wildlife. But though hunting and fishing are an important management […]
Democrat Amy Acton breaks with party to support Issue 3
Democratic candidate for Ohio governor Amy Acton is breaking with her party to support Issue 3, an amendment enshrining the state's voter photo identification requirement in the state constitution.
Socialists Need to Develop a Constitutional Politics
To win change for working people, the Democratic Socialists of America should expand its vision of how to change our constitutional order. We can smash unaccountable executive and judiciary power even without having to amend the Constitution.
Tales of our 250th variety show coming Aug. 20
JONESBOROUGH — Tales of Our 250th continues at the Jackson Theatre on Thursday, August 20. The Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, and the US Constitution did not guarantee freedom
Taiwan’s push to dissolve pro-Beijing party triggers political censorship debate
Politicians divided over proposal to ban Chinese Unification Promotion Party after ministry says it jeopardises free and democratic constitutional order.
Trump signs 2 immigration actions to limit birthright citizenship
Trump said he thought his latest actions would be constitutional
Trump signs 2 immigration actions to limit birthright citizenship
Trump said he thought his latest actions would be constitutional
Trump signs 2 immigration actions to limit birthright citizenship
Trump said he thought his latest actions would be constitutional
Honouring Guatemala’s Indigenous midwives and making space for Indigenous health systems
Guatemala’s Indigenous midwives won recognition of their work before the Constitutional Court. Seven years on, UN Human Rights has documented that the ruling still has not reached the health services where they work every day. This year’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is dedicated to them.
Conservative groups sue to stop online sports betting in Wisconsin
A lawsuit from conservative groups claims Wisconsin's new online sports betting law is unconstitutional and must be struck down.
Lawsuit filed asking Wisconsin's sports betting law be declared unconstitutional
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty filed the suit Wednesday, asking a judge to declare Wisconsin's sports betting law unconstitutional.
Former Attorneys General, Business Associations, and Former Department of Labor Leaders Support Family Farm’s Supreme Court Case
ARLINGTON, Va.—In its fall term, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Department of Labor’s agency court system. New […]
Missouri’s top election official blocks referendum on gerrymandered map
Hoskins, a Republican, claimed that the campaign was unconstitutional, a remarkable argument that map opponents will challenge in court.
Larry Hogan: The Constitution is not a tool for partisan politics
Guest commentary: Former Gov. Larry Hogan criticizes Maryland’s special session focused on redistricting — “You do not protect voting rights by weakening constitutional limits on partisan mapmaking.”
RFK Jr. tells CNN host that constitutional rights take priority over public health
In a heated interview with Dana Bash, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attacked Anthony Fauci and the media.
We the people: Learning the navigation of politics and voting
Democracy has become a loaded word, along with the U.S. Constitution. Then I was extended the opportunity to playtest a game, Convention of States. I began to see how democracy was complicated and often politically maneuvered. To understand this: Article V of the U.S. Constitution allows state legislatures to bypass Congress and propose amendments to the Constitution. Therein lies the game: a role-playing game that casts players as democratically elected delegates representing the regions and states of America. I was lucky enough to become a Justice, heavily equipped with states, which is voting power. I voted on behalf of Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Federal judge strikes down City of Houston's minority, woman, small business program as unconstitutional
A federal judge has ruled the City of Houston’s Minority Women and Small Business Enterprise Program is unconstitutional.
City of Houston's minority, woman, small business program ruled unconstitutional
A federal court has ruled the City of Houston's Minority Women and Small Business Enterprise Program as unconstitutional, according to court records.
Houston’s minority business contracting program ruled unconstitutional
A white couple from Spring sued the city in 2023, alleging their lawn care business, Landscape Consultants of Texas, Inc., could not “compete on an equal footing with other businesses.”
Most Americans favor big changes to the political system that likely would require amending the Constitution
Most Americans support term limits, campaign spending caps, and Electoral College reform, but achieving these changes likely would require amending one of the world's hardest constitutions to change.
What England's local councils tell us about fragmenting politics
Even the most ardent advocate for local democracy would concede that council chambers are not always the most exciting places. Subscribe Whether it’s planning meetings, motions or resolutions, you’d be forgiven for switching off. Unless it’s lockdown and we’re talking about standing orders, of course. Remember Jackie Weaver, who infamously “had no authority here” at a chaotic parish council Zoom call in 2021? Yet, as a general rule since then, council meetings rarely make the headlines beyond local papers and news websites. Reform’s success After Reform’s stunning success at the local elections in May though, the leader of the party’s group on Kirklees Council suddenly found she’d gone viral online for admitting that she didn’t actually understand council procedures. “I don’t understand the constitution”, Councillor Sarah Wood, pictured above, told the council chamber. “I have not had sufficient time to read that as yet. I don’t understand what standing orders are, what they’re made up of, nor do I understand what an amendment is.” Share Channel 4 News Councillor Wood later defended her comments to the BBC, and said that “new councillors and not just us, are coming from jobs”. She claimed that the sharing of the clip mocking her online was an example of “Reform-bashing”. She added: “Yes, we need to know procedures. Yes we need to do the homework. And we have addressed that now and we have put that right.” So, with standing orders getting another moment in the spotlight, not to mention the fracturing and fragmentation from May’s results, we set out to find out how new councillors are doing across England in this new political landscape. New political landscape Where better to start then than Kirklees, in West Yorkshire. Reform is the largest party, the council is under no overall control and has chosen a new leader - Sarah Wood - after two failed attempts to elect one. It is difficult to secure interviews with new Reform councillors, but John Hardie, pictured below, told us it’s been a “whirlwind” since being elected in May. He represents the Dalton ward and told us the party’s lack of political experience hasn’t been a hindrance. “We’ve come with lots of experience, lots of business experience and life experience, and it’s been good, actually, too. And to mix with other councillors who have been in the political world, and we can learn from each other.” Indeed, more parties are now having a say than ever before. In Manchester, the Green Party followed up their victory in the parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton by gaining 17 seats on the city council. That makes them the official opposition to Labour, who have long dominated Manchester City Council. [ ](https://channel4news.substack.com/p/how-landmark-green-by-election-win) [ How landmark Green by-election win could change British politics ](https://channel4news.substack.com/p/how-landmark-green-by-election-win) Krishnan Guru-Murthy · Feb 27 [ Read full story ](https://channel4news.substack.com/p/how-landmark-green-by-election-win) Thirza Amina Asanga-Rae, pictured below, is one of those new councillors, representing Moss Side. We asked her how being the official opposition can make a difference. She said: “I think even the fact that we’ve made history in what we’ve done, it’s been a 50-year stronghold of Labour in Manchester, and now that we’ve broken that and chipped in that, there’s real hope that we can not only run the council in the future, but currently hold them to account. So, I think that’s powerful. It’s just going to help shape and build what I call the green wave.” The reality, though, is that several newly elected councillors across the country have already left their roles through resignations, suspensions or defections. ‘It’s a slog’ Asanga-Rae adds: “It’s a job, it’s a slog. Obviously, we’re going through hard times. Austerity is real. We’re talking about food, child poverty, furniture poverty. The list is endless, and I think people who come into a councillor role need to be willing to help, really roll the sleeves up and get involved and help, and I think a lot of the career politicians, who think it’s the ‘la-di-da’ position, get in and realise I’m not going to do this work and bounce.” Share Although Manchester still has a clear majority, many councils, including Kirklees, are now under no overall control. That is perhaps the strongest sign of the political fragmentation we are seeing. Burnley is another example of this. Reform is now the largest party, yet they’re not part of the power-sharing coalition on this council - the Liberal Democrats and a local group of independents. Zulkernehn Hayat, pictured below, is part of The Independent Group. He represents Queensgate ward and told us all councils can benefit from having more independent councillors. ‘This is where I was brought up’ He said: “This is my home. This is Burnley. This is where I was brought up. Why do I need to get approval from somebody in a head office down south somewhere, you know? “This is my biggest argument. If okay, my neighbour comes to me with an issue, I can then take that straight to the council, because I don’t need to get approval from anywhere else. And this is the benefit of being independent.” So, while voters will always inevitably want quick results, perhaps spare a thought for the newly-elected councillors who are still navigating local government - one standing order at a time. 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Matthew Martin Receives the 2026 Edward S. Corwin Award for “The People’s Voice, The Drafters’ Choice: The Politics of Public Consultation in Constitution-Making” -
The Edward S. Corwin Award is presented annually by the American Political Science Association (APSA) to honor the best doctoral dissertation in the field of public law. Citation from the Award Committee: The members of the Corwin [...]
Indonesian electoral reform remains stalled by political deadlock
Constitutional Court rulings have created an opportunity to reform Indonesia's electoral laws, but conflicting political incentives are stalling changes needed to safeguard fair electoral competition.
80 years strong: the WHO Constitution
Eighty years ago this week – in July 1946 – nations emerging from the devastation of the Second World War chose cooperation over division. They signed the Constitution of the WHO, founded on a bold and radical idea: that health is key to peace and security, and that health is a human right.
US House passes war powers resolution directing Trump to withdraw US military from Iran
Resolution, which comes after similar one in June, is largely symbolic, as Trump administration says it’s unconstitutional
Planned Parenthood endorses Pingree for governor
After receiving the Planned Parenthood endorsement, Pingree said she will push for a state constitutional amendment to guarantee a right to abortion, look to partner with other states to ensure access to medication abortion and work to backfill gaps in federal funding.
Appeals court revives radiologist’s lawsuit over his public support for youth trans-care ban
“Today’s decision affirms that speaking honestly to our elected representatives is not misconduct—it is a constitutional right," Wyoming radiologist Eric Cubin, MD, said.
Liberal circuit judge blasts SCOTUS conservatives, says Hawaii will defy high court
Justice Todd Eddins accused the Roberts Court of reviving discredited 1857 and 1896 rulings while dismantling constitutional rights and democracy.
WATCH: Lawmakers reveal where they stand on congressional term limits after recent health scares
Ted Cruz says he authored a constitutional amendment to limit senators to two terms and House members to three as Congress debates term limits.
Oregon business association challenging constitutionality of BOLI bill
Oregon Business and Industry and two others filed a lawsuit arguing lawmakers violated the constitution when they passed a bill to fund Oregon BOLI.
They're Building Half A Bridge to Save Science...
Today’s post is about science: what you can do now to protect it from unprecedented threats, and how your action is the first half of a long-term program that Congress must take up next. Let me start with describing the embryonic state of science advocacy. There are many well-meaning organizations: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Research!America, and subject-specific organizations such as the Society for Neuroscience and the American Physical Society. Their general approach is to emphasize the common good: the remarkable value that science and innovation have provided to all Americans. However, these organizations are offering an incomplete solution. Before I start, a preliminary: If you already know about the threat, go ahead and weigh in with OMB at this link. Ideas about what to say come from Research!America and the American Physical Society. You have until Monday, July 13 at 11:59pm Eastern. Then come back here and read the rest of this post. Finally, get in touch with whoever is likely to be your next member of Congress in 2027. The threat: An end to merit-based science… The onslaught of attacks on science is accelerating. It’s not just cuts to grants, which was the last battle. That battle is not done yet, but there is a new and worse threat. Now comes a proposed public rule from the Office of Management and Budget. The rule would take decision-making power over grants away from experts and put it into the hands of political appointees. Former NIH official Elizabeth Ginexi wrote an excellent summary of what OMB is trying to do, which is codify the executive branch’s ability to award or terminate grants, for arbitrary cause or no stated cause. Since World War II, a necessary step in scientific grant-making has been consideration of scientific merit. This approach has made America into a dominant scientific superpower, the envy of the world. Of course, political considerations do come into the mix. The proposed rule tilts the balance dramatically away from merit. …but why? Many people have difficulty comprehending why Russell Vought and OMB would want to damage science in this way. If you’re a working scientist, you are likely to be particularly uncomprehending. Who would hurt an activity so self-evidently good? The answer is: this is part of the program to replace the rule of law with a personalist regime. OMB Director Russell Vought, a Christian nationalist, would like to implement what legal scholars call a “unitary executive,” and what I would call a dictatorship. Or if you like, a personalist authoritarian regime. I am a working scientist. This rule will debilitate my research. It may chill the speech of scientists for speaking freely in the public sphere. It is a form of personalizing power and decision-making within the executive branch. In short, it sacrifices science in the service of tyranny. To Russell Vought, a decrease in the quality of science might be an acceptable cost. He might even consider it an added benefit to weaken a pillar of soft U.S. power based on knowledge and skepticism. The professional societies are building half a bridge The nonprofits are asking you to make public comment. Public comment is like building the first half of a bridge. Before implementation, OMB is compelled by law to have a period of public comment. Rules have to be consistent with the law and the Constitution. They express the federal government’s stance toward how those laws will be implemented. When a presidential administration works in good faith, these public comments are used to inform their eventual action, and sometimes mitigate it. The comment period reflects our First Amendment right to petition our government. The executive branch is then supposed to take those comments into account - completing the bridge between us, the people, and our government. Project 2025 seeks to take away the second half of the bridge. We have to replace it. The first half of the bridge Organizations like AAAS, Research!America, and SfN are partly right. You should certainly comment. Their core model is earnest: if enough of us make noise, then we will achieve change. This idealistic point of view is offered in good faith. That point of view is also currently bullshit. The fundamental reason is that the federal rulemaking process has two parts: There has to be a period of public comment. OMB makes the final rule…but is free to disregard public comment. Oops. That’s a loophole. However, not all is lost. Congress can complete the bridge Congress has enormous power. That power suggests a roadmap for how to proceed. This lawless administration is still going to issue that rule. Nonetheless, your comments still play an essential role. Here are two steps you can take. Step 1: Send your comment to your Representative and Senator. Whether they are Democrats or Republicans, many of them support science. Whatever you wrote as public comment in the Federal Register, also send it to your member of Congress. You can include information about jobs in your district or state by looking at Joshua Weitz’s ScienceMatters interactive map. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and give your town, zip code, or state, then deliver your message. Step 2: Politicize the hell out of science. You heard me, politicize it as an issue. We hear a lot from the old scientific establishment about science being nonpartisan. This is obsolete, sentimental thinking. Under normal conditions, it was true. But we can no longer make that assumption. We can keep on pretending, but we’re putting science at risk. There is a way forward. Rules are subordinate to the law…and Congress makes laws. Therefore Congress can step in. In this fall’s election, it is likely that Democrats will retake the House of Representatives. That puts at least one chamber of Congress in the hands of Democrats. They are far more inclined than the current Congress to investigate and legislate. This opens a path to undoing the damage. It also creates a permission structure for pro-science Republicans to find a way back from the brink. We have to encourage them. In the House, every district is up every two years. In your district, contact both of the major party candidates. If your state has a Senate race, contact those candidates too. Specifically mention the proposed OMB rule. Ask for two things: For this year’s appropriations process in August and September, ask that amendments be added to stop the implementation of the new rule. Those amendments should support peer-reviewed science and stop political interference. Looking ahead to next year, ask the Congressman/Congresswoman/Senator to work to hold hearings in 2027 on the importance and benefits of peer-reviewed science for health and prosperity. What hearings and amendments will accomplish Congress can use its investigatory power to summon heads of agencies and the director of the OMB. That will allow fact-finding regarding the consequences of this rule. Congress can override the rule through the appropriations process. They can write into statute a requirement to follow peer review and best scientific practices. In this way, Congress can stop the attacks on science. Postscript: Moving forward Now I have a request for you, to help me. As many of you know, I ran for Congress in order to save democracy and science. Although I did not win, that battle continues by other means. I met and heard from thousands of supporters both here in New Jersey and nationally. I learned that pro-science, pro-democracy activists have the potential to become a much greater force. In the weeks and months ahead, I will be building ways to harness that energy. I will be announcing those plans soon. In the meantime, an important step is to wind down the Congressional campaign, which has a few remaining bills to pay. Please help me retire that last debt.
Overruling the voters before they even vote
By Chris Richardson There is something profoundly wrong with a legislature that sees a citizen-led constitutional amendment gaining momentum and responds not by making its case to the public, but by passing a law designed to neutralize it before voters ever cast a ballot. That is exactly what happened with House Bill 26-1430. Initiative 175 […]
The 2028 redistricting wars have already begun
The Maryland legislature is set to convene a special session next month after Democratic lawmakers proposed a constitutional amendment on redistricting.
Courts, citizenship and Alabama’s political test
This week’s "The Voice of Alabama Politics" examines citizenship, constitutional enforcement, death penalty clemency and voter turnout as Alabama’s political stakes sharpen in 2026.
Pro-ballot initiative group submits 108,837 signatures
Backers of a proposed Arkansas constitutional amendment that would make citizen-proposed laws and constitutional amendments a fundamental right submitted 108,837 petition signatures Friday (July 3), the deadline for turning in...
Moon school district, PIAA sued after students barred from sports following family’s move
A mother this week sued Moon Area School District and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, alleging her constitutional rights were violated when district administrators barred her sons from playing school sports after the family moved there from the neighboring Sto-Rox district. The civil rights lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court
Bolsonaro Adviser Says Fiscal Bill to Be Focus
Daniella Marques, an adviser to Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, said in an interview with SBT News that, if victorious in this year’s elections, his eventual government would propose a constitutional amendment focused on controlling spending and the debt trajectory right from the start. The goal would be to restore confidence and facilitate an adjustment in the benchmark interest rate.
I fly the American flag because no political faction owns patriotism
'As a former Superior Court judge, I swore to support and defend the constitutions of the United States and California against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That is a precept all should embrace and celebrate, flag or no flag,' writes an L.A. Times reader.
Great-grandson of Wong Kim Ark praises Supreme Court ruling affirming birthright citizenship
The great-grandson of Wong Kim Ark, the Chinese American at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court case that established the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, called Tuesday’s ruling a victory for all Americans, saying it reaffirmed that precedent.
Maine high court considers trans signature debate
The debate Wednesday focused on Bellows’ obligation to balance the U.S. Constitution, the Maine Constitution and a 2022 federal consent order requiring Maine to allow nonresidents to circulate petitions.
VOTE: Are Supreme Court decisions based more on the Constitution or base politics?
Do you think the Supreme Court makes decisions based on the U.S. Constitution or base politics?
Push to add limits on school sports participation to Nebraska Constitution gathers 211k signatures
The push comes after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld two similar state laws; the group said it collected the most signatures in state history.
Supreme Court rejects Trump's plan to limit birthright citizenship
The justices said Trump may not revise the Constitution and change citizenship laws in an executive order.
The Latest: Supreme Court is set to rule on Trump’s challenge to birthright citizenship
The Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s order on birthright citizenship declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.
Colorado Supreme Court: Redistricting plans for 2028 election cannot proceed under state constitution
The Colorado Supreme Court blocked all attempts at redrawing congressional district boundaries for the 2028 election from reaching the ballot on Monday, concluding each of the proposed ballot measures violated the constitutional single-subject requirement. The court considered five distinct, but related, ballot measures. Three proposals would have redrawn U.S. House of Representatives districts to give […]
Man with same name as U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan is eligible for Alaska's primary ballot, judge rules
The judge ruled that the division’s decision to exclude Dan J. Sullivan because his candidacy was not “in good faith” was not based on the Constitution, Alaska law or the division’s own regulations.
Recent rulings show that SCOTUS has ditched reason for politics
'The flurry of 6-3 decisions shows how SCOTUS has become a political body, not the judicial one the founders of our Constitution sorely aspired to,' writes an L.A. Times reader.
Rock Creek Entertainment District under siege in new lawsuit
A citizens group has sued to block Norman's $1.1 billion Rock Creek Entertainment District, alleging constitutional and Open Meetings Act violations.
Graham Platner backs legal maneuver using Maine law to rein in political spending
Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner wants to overturn the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections by any means possible. He supports a constitutional amendment and ethics rules on the high court, which the Sullivan oyster farmer included in his latest policy rollout […]
4 years after Dobbs, Texas abortion rights advocates share personal stories
In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion
Reproductive Health and Constitutionalism in Latin America: A Research Agenda
--Verónica Undurraga, Professor at the Faculty of Law, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez [Editor’s Note: This is one of our ICONnect columns. For more inf
A federal judge orders an ICE detainee with mental illness released, finding her six-month detention unconstitutional
The ruling followed a hearing that exposed a sharp divide over how a Vermont prison's mental health providers, a corrections officer and outside clinicians assessed the woman’s mental illness, a dispute the judge did not resolve.
Hungary’s PM launches drive to free country from Orban’s ‘mafia’
The raft of proposed changes includes a new constitution and anti-corruption office, and the ousting of the president.
Judge says Trump DOJ subpoenas of Tim Walz and other Democrats are unconstitutional
A federal judge on Monday blocked the Justice Department from forcing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other officials to turn over records in its probe of Democratic resistance to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, calling the move retaliatory.
Ask the expert: Michigan’s 16-year constitutional convention ballot vote
MSU Professor Quinn Yeargain explains how every 16 years, Michigan's constitution requires that voters decide if the state should hold a constitutional convention.
The Constitutional Politics of Chile’s National Reconstruction
--Benjamín Alemparte, Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Chile Constitutions do not change only through formal amendment. Bruce
Quincy Museum holds Women in Politics Talk with Mayor Linda Moore
Women’s rights started long before the 19th Amendment was adopted into the Constitution in 1920. As women spoke out for their right to vote, the city of Quincy and the state of Illinois was prominent in the support of women’s suffrage.
SBA moves to revise 8(a) rules while preserving tribal, ANC eligibility
Details By Brian Edwards Native Contracting June 13, 2026 The U.S. Small Business Administration has proposed changes to its 8(a) Business Development Program that would eliminate race-based presumptions of social disadvantage for individually owned businesses while leaving eligibility standards unchanged for tribally owned enterprises, Alaska Native corporations and other Native entity-owned participants. In both the title and summary of the proposed rule published in the Federal Register, SBA emphasized that the changes only apply to individually owned firms and “do not impact entity-owned firms,” including tribes, Alaska Native corporation, Native Hawaiian organizations and community development corporations. The proposed rule, announced June 11, would require all individual applicants seeking admission to the 8(a) program to submit evidence demonstrating social disadvantage. Membership in a racial or ethnic group alone would no longer establish eligibility, according to the SBA. For Indian Country, the agency said eligibility standards for businesses owned by federally recognized tribes, Alaska Native corporations, Native Hawaiian organizations and community development corporations would remain unchanged. The proposal comes after the Department of Defense reaffirmed that participation by tribes and Alaska Native corporations in the 8(a) program is based on their political status under federal law rather than diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. In a May 28 letter to Alaska's Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael P. Duffey wrote that participation by federally recognized tribes and Alaska Native corporations in federal programs is “grounded in their political status as Native Americans, not DEI initiatives.” The SBA proposal follows a 2023 federal court ruling that found unconstitutional the program's rebuttable presumption that members of certain racial and ethnic groups were socially disadvantaged. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said the proposed rule would establish a single standard for individually owned applicants by requiring evidence of social disadvantage. The 8(a) Business Development Program provides participating firms with business development assistance and access to federal set-aside and sole-source contracting opportunities. The program remains a major source of federal contracting revenue for tribal enterprises and Alaska Native corporations. Native-owned firms received $16.1 billion of the program's approximately $26 billion in federal contract awards during fiscal 2024, according to data previously reported by Tribal Business News. The proposal also arrives amid ongoing concerns from Native contractors about SBA administration of the program. In May, the Native American Contractors Association and 53 Native-owned businesses urged SBA to address delays in processing 8(a) applications, saying some reviews had stretched beyond regulatory deadlines and appeared to have stalled since August 2025. The proposed rule is open for public comment through July 13. The Federal Register notice does not reference tribal consultation or indicate whether SBA determined consultation was unnecessary because tribal eligibility standards are unchanged. The SBA has not announced when the proposed rule would take effect. The agency is expected to accept public comments before issuing a final rule.About The AuthorAuthor: Brian EdwardsBrian Edwards is associate publisher and associate editor of Tribal Business News and Native News Online. He is a longtime publisher, editor, business reporter and serial entrepreneur. Subscribe Today!Other Articles by this authorDefense Department reaffirms tribal, ANC eligibility in SBA 8(a) programTribal heritage projects eligible for up to $100K in federal funding through NPS programIHS launches tribal long-term care construction initiative with three projectsIḷisaġvik College acquires site for long-planned Utqiaġvik campus This article is available to paid digital subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
In Retrospect: Poland, Russia, Europe
In April I spent a few days with Zryw, a Polish non-profit organization that recruits young people to enter politics and public life. Their aim is to build a new generation of civic leaders in Poland. I’ve followed their evolution from the beginning; my son is one of the founders. (“Zryw” means “impulse” or “burst of speed” in Polish). Julie Chmielewska, one of Zryw’s leaders, interviewed me at the event. Here is the conversation, lightly edited for grammar and context: Julia Chmielewska: Assuming that culture shapes institutions, could we conclude that some cultures are more prone to authoritarianism? Anne Applebaum: I don’t think so. Every culture, every nation, and every country has the potential for change. When we look at history, we can see that nations do change. Poland has changed, for example, from the 1980s to today. There’s a completely different mentality here than the one I encountered when I first visited, in 1988. The current generation sees the world through a different frame. So no, I don’t believe that certain nations are doomed to authoritarianism, or to anything. Of course, there are political and cultural traditions, but they can always be challenged. JC: So do you think there’s something intrinsic in human nature that pushes people to democracy, freedom? AA: I think there is something in human nature, a deep instinct, that pushes people towards freedom, yes. People who live in authoritarian countries – and I’ve heard this from them over and over again – sooner or later find themselves angered by a feeling of helplessness. They can see the unfairness of crooked courts, irrational political decisions. They naturally dislike the fact that somebody has all the power while they have none. In those circumstances, people who have no political background at all sometimes are politicized just by that frustration. I’m thinking of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, for example, who was a Belarusian housewife, until the circumstances of her husband’s arrest forced her to become a politician. I met a woman who is a Uyghur from China, and who had come to live in Turkey. After several of her family members were arrested, she too was propelled into a political role. These kinds of experiences make people interested in democracy or political reform, even if they thought they didn’t care. I also think that the opposite is true: some people instinctively prefer homogeneity, order, hierarchy. They don’t like the confrontation of opinions or the noise of debate, and they lean towards a single leader or a unified regime. I think that most of modern history is shaped by the clash between those two different sides of human nature. JC: Which force do you find more powerful today? AA: I think they both have a lot of power and there’s no way of predicting who wins. Even in countries that seem very shut off or stuck in an authoritarian system can change. We’ve seen that happen. And vice versa, I think democracies can also begin to fail and slide into authoritarianism. So it’s very important not to be complacent in either direction. JC: I want to go into your history and your experiences. You’ve lived in Russia during a time of incredible change in the late 80s, and then you came back to do research in post-Soviet Russia. AA: I was a student in Russia just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. I then traveled and worked there extensively in the 1990s, and I met people who really were full of hope. They hoped that Russia could become a democracy, or at least a place that guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of the press. These weren’t ideas that came from Washington. Although now the narrative in the Kremlin is different, I met many people who were working towards exactly that kind of transformation. A friend of mine ran a series of seminars – once a year, and then later several times a year, in cities all over Russia – designed to get people to discuss politics in new ways. She invited young politicians and journalists, as well as foreigners. I went to many of them, in Moscow as well as Volgograd and Novosibirsk. Over two decades, hundreds of people came to these seminars, and all of them wanted Russia to be different. I remain convinced that many Russians still want Russia to be different. It’s just that the old system, in the form of Putin, a representative of that system, returned. The KGB reimposed their power. And this wasn’t because of something to do with culture, this was to do with money and politics, and who was in charge. JC: You’ve partially answered my question... I wanted to ask whether that excitement of the 1990s was an exception from the Russian historical norm which has been rather authoritarian? AA: Of course, if you look at the history of Russia since the 18th century, there have always been liberal groups, reformers and revolutionaries. There were the Decembrists, in the early 19th century, and the rural populists later on, who tried to organize the peasantry. A significant group of liberal Russians appeared at the turn of the 20th century, people like the father of the writer Vladimir Nabokov, who was a Russian politician before the revolution. These groups were small in number, but sometimes had a broader significance. The Russian dissident movement in the 1950s and 1960s actually invented the modern human rights movement. It was their idea to hold the leaders of the Soviet Union accountable for the language they used, to remind them of the treaties they had signed and the promised they had made. They created the Helsinki group, for example, that held Soviet leadership to the language of the Helsinki Treaty, which formally ended the Second World War and which contained guarantees of human rights, at least on paper. That idea spread to Eastern Europe, and similar tactics were used here in Poland. (Benjamin Nathans recently wrote a great book about the Soviet dissidents, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause) JC: But seemingly, even if they do ever get power, they could never hold on to it. AA: We don’t know, because they have never really had power. But in any case, we also don’t know what will happen in the future. There is no reason to assume that Russia will forever be condemned to totalitarianism. Even during the first fifteen years of Putin’s regime there was some form of democratic politics. Only when the full-scale war began did he bring everything to an end: he shut down all remaining independent organizations and killed his most important opponent, Alexi Navalny. But does that mean he is popular, that he enjoys legitimacy? Even now, we don’t really know what Russians think about him, or about the war. There is no way of doing real polling in Russia because nobody will answer an independent pollster over the phone. JC: Do you think that the flock of young people, especially young men, who fled Russia after the start of the war represent a continuation of liberal movements that refuse to partake in the authoritarian state, or do you think they are moving for the sake of self-preservation – “I don’t want to go to the army, so I leave”? AA: I’m sure it’s both. I actually know many people who left Russia for political reasons either in the very last years before the war, or else just after the war began. JC: And do you see a change in the young generation versus the old one that have fled? AA: It’s hard for me to say because the people who I know were mostly already politicized. I do know some younger people who left, but most of them were already either active in the opposition, or working as journalists. Many of them very self-consciously think of themselves as maintaining Russian culture abroad, just as in the 20th century the Soviet dissidents or the anti-communist White Russians once thought of themselves as people who maintained the true Russian culture, outside of Bolshevik Russia. JC: Let’s move on to Poland. One of your first experiences with Poland was reporting on Margaret Thatcher’s first state visit, in the autumn of 1988. You followed her around the farmers’ market. AA: She was making a symbolic gesture. She wanted to welcome free markets, but the only one she could really visit was the farmers’ market at Hala Mirowska. JC: And I want to talk about this area because today you can look out of any window in that district, Mirów, and see rows and rows of skyscrapers. How does it feel to see a country built from the ground in such a short time, both politically and economically? AA: You know, when you’re living in a period of dramatic change, it’s always hard to know whether the change is positive or negative. The transformation in Poland created winners and losers, as well as new classes of people, new political movements of different kinds. At the time, it sometimes just felt like turbulence. Now, we can look back at the 1990s and early 2000s in Poland and see in retrospect that the country was headed in towards prosperity and European integration. In around 2009 or 2010, I remember speaking to a woman who worked cleaning government offices, and who asked me if her daughter should study in Amsterdam or in London. This seemed to me to be a real transformation, and it happened very fast: within a few years, Poles stopped feeling like second-class Europeans, and a generation of younger Poles appeared who had no qualms about crossing borders. JC: We again live in turbulent times. Do you think we’re heading towards positive outcomes? AA: I can’t make predictions, because everything that happens tomorrow depends on what people do today. Also, history doesn’t have a trajectory. It doesn’t move in a particular direction. You only think it does afterwards. As I said, you can look afterwards at Poland in the 1990s and you could say this was a period of great progress. But not everybody at the time saw that. Sometimes people are very wrong about a given country’s trajectory. I remember people writing about Ukraine in the 1990s, about how dangerous it was that Ukraine was independent, that this was going to be an anti-semitic state, that Ukrainian nationalism was going to come back... and although you can say many bad things about Ukraine, the country made many bad choices, actually it became a pretty tolerant state which now has a Jewish president and until recently a Muslim defense minister. JC: In the 1990s Poland’s and Ukraine’s GDP were roughly similar. Ukraine was even a bit richer. So the starting point was similar for both of these countries, but they’ve turned out very, very differently. Even if we stop in 2014. Why do you think Ukraine “chose East”? Was it external influence? AA: No, I think Ukraine was in a different position. First of all, central and eastern Ukraine had been part of the Soviet Union since the 1920s, and had therefore experienced a longer period of occupation, repression, Sovietization and even Russification. Ukraine did not have, as Poland did, an alternative elite: a large cadre of economists and politicians, who already had some experience in opposition politics and in independent thinking. In Poland, the transformative finance minister, Leszek Balcerowicz, had already thought about how an economy might be decentralized before he took office. We can argue about how successful he was, but at least he was prepared to try something new. In Ukraine, people weren’t prepared. For one, there hadn’t been much space even for an illegal opposition in the previous couple of decades. Ukraine was also in many ways still emerging from colonial occupation. For the previous couple of centuries, many of the most capable Ukrainians had moved to Russia, and the first generation of leaders in independent Ukraine tended to be former Soviet apparatchiks. They didn’t immediately seek to become closer to western Europe. Instead, they looked for some kind of economic and political “third way” and an accomodation with Russia. Ukraine became stuck in this position, half-in, half-out and became pretty profoundly corrupt. JC: The Polish alternative elite had a vision of where they wanted the country to go. I think the general perception now is that this vision ends with the next election, right? Is this a natural process of gaining power? AA: Their vision, and it was shared by the time by politicians who now call themselves both left and right, was that Poland should join the EU and NATO, as fast as possible. My husband (Radek Sikorski) was in the very first government that said it wanted to join NATO. At the time this was taken very badly in Washington: the demand for NATO membership absolutely came from Poland, not from the US. But even then, in the early 1990s, many Poles already understood that the Russian sphere of influence would grow once again, that it was important to become part of the transatlantic alliance and an integrated Europe as fast as possible: NATO, the EU, the Council of Europe, all of the trading and security alliances. That consensus lasted through several different governments and over many years, even governments containing former communists. For twenty years, right, left and center disagreed about many things, but they all agreed on the direction that the country should go. In retrospect, that consensus created the basis for prosperity in Poland. JC: And regarding the Polish-Ukrainian relations. We know that antagonisms, e.g. the myth of Wołyń [a massacre of Poles that took place in what is now Western Ukraine, in 1943] are increasingly used in Polish political discourse today. In Ukraine, nationalist historians make heroes out of UPA, the Ukrainian revolutionary army, which is held responsible for this tragedy. Where do you see a start for burying the hatchet? Is the reconciliation of our nations possible? AA: So here’s a strange thing: For more than a decade after they both gained independence, Poland and Ukraine participated in a number of projects that were designed to solve exactly these kinds of Polish-Ukrainian differences. Books were published that were jointly written by Polish and Ukrainian historians, monuments were built. These projects were successful: If you’d asked me this question in 2010, I would have said that there are no real historical issues between Poland and Ukraine, that the two countries had mostly reconciled. For a number of reasons, this began to shift. In Poland, children and grandchildren of victims of the Wołyń massacre felt their tragedy hadn’t been fully recognized. In Ukraine, nationalist groups wanted the UPA partisans who had fought against the Soviet Union recognized for their heroism, despite the fact that some in this broad and not well-defined group were also linked to Wołyń. In both eastern Poland and western Ukraine, the memory of the ethnic cleansing that took place there in the late 1940s - Poles were moved West, Ukrainians East - to accomodate new borders has left feelings of displacement and bitterness. The wave of Ukrainian immigration, which started before the war, may have provoked some of this. But don’t underestimate the role played by Russia, which has always wanted to create discord between Poland and Ukraine, and pumps out propaganda to that effect in both countries. Vandalism on both sides of the border, damage done to cemeteries and monuments, is sometimes carried out by provacateurs working for Russia, just to create bad feelings. The Polish-Ukrainian conflict also hides a different reality: although there are real grievances and bad memories, the truth is that the biggest tragedies both nations experienced in the twentieth century were inflicted by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. That should unite these two countries, not divide them. JC: This week (19.04.2026 – Ed.) in Hungary we saw that using historical narratives to create grievance has no longer worked. Are you optimistic about the direction after Orban’s loss? AA: The Hungarian election was really important because it shows that people can actually resist powerful, dominant propaganda. The ruling party Fidesz controlled all of the TV, 90% of the newspapers, the constitutional court, the bureaucracy... and yet people had the nerve to vote against it and resist it. It’s also an important election because Hungary created a huge network of well-funded think tanks and foundations that were funding other far right groups and projects. So that loss is going to have a knock-on effect in other places too, maybe even in Poland. JC: What you’ve said about resisting propaganda reminds me of one of the interviews you did about talking to Russians in the post-Soviet era who claimed that people knew that the system was lying. Why do people choose to believe in these regimes anyway? AA: Because it’s useful. Stephen Kotkin, an American historian, once described how people would learn how to “speak Bolshevik”: It was just a language that you needed to use in order to get by in society. If you didn’t talk the way the regime wanted you to talk, then you might have problems, or lose your job, or your kids would not get into university. It was a way of getting along. Communist Poland was similar, at least in the early years. When I was writing a book about the Sovietization of Eastern Europe after World War II, I met a lot of people who wanted to talk a lot about the war, when many of them had done really heroic things. But almost nobody wanted to talk about the decade afterwards, between 1945 and 1956. This was when you had the short period of terror, violence and Polish Stalinism. To stay safe, people felt the need to just go along with what others were saying, or stay out of politics, or use communist jargon without necessarily believing it. I don’t judge them for it, and I wouldn’t describe all of those people as collaborators. It’s easy to feel moral certainty in retrospect, because we know that communism ended. But if you were living in 1949, it might not have been clear to you that communism was going to end. In very repressive societies, maybe about 10% of people who are really evil – collaborators, torturers. Maybe 10% of people are really brave and who find ways to resist. And then around 80% of people have kids, they have parents, they have to have jobs and they’ve had to get through it somehow. Strange though it may sound, I’ve found that the work I did on that book is now very useful in explaining some of what’s going on in the United States today. There are plenty of members of the Republican Party in Congress who know perfectly well that Donald Trump says many things that aren’t true. But they avoid criticizing him because it’s inconvenient, because they would get in trouble, because someone would attack them on the internet. So actually you don’t even need mass terror to get people to conform. JC: Is Gen Z reinventing agency? AA: We’ll see. In any generation you can find groups of people who want agency. If you live in a society that’s unfair, for example where a tiny number of people have captured most of the wealth, then at a certain point people rebel. This is always easier for younger people, who have you have less to lose. The question now is how the internet will affect the relationships between citizens and the state, and how it will change organizations. The “Twitter revolutions” people spoke about as early as 2008-9, mass protests organized online, have often proved to be very superficial. Although you can easily join something just by clicking, the work of creating a real movement requires physical participation. Successful mass movements of the past, for example the Civil Rights movement in the United States, were built by people who had spent many years together. They had participated in non-violent workshops together. They practiced and prepared. Just using the you can get everybody to show up at a certain moment, but then when the protest is broken up, nothing happens. It’s also true that the repressive regimes have more recently learned how to use the internet to undermine leaders and movements. Most of all, they now understand how to make people cynical. The form of propaganda that most modern authoritarians use - and I think the Russians really pioneered this - deploys sneering cynicism. Instead of praising the rulers, the regime propagandists mock the opposition movement leadership for being supposedly corrupt or sexually degenerate, with the goal of undermining any kind of idealism. JC: MAGA grew on the internet? AA: MAGA is a real grassroots movement. They had symbols, red hats, they showed up at rallies. But you’re right that the cynicism, the sarcasm and the distrust that the movement embodies came originally from the internet, and this is different. Fifty years ago, most European political parties had a social base in real organizations, in trade unions for Social Democrats, in church groups for Christian Democrats. As people stopped going to church and as the trade unions became smaller, the social base of these parties disappeared. Now people who wouldn’t have known one another in the past meet on the internet and create new movements, many of which don’t last. JC: Is history ending? Going in stale circles? AA: History never ends. In truth, human beings want contradictory things at the same time: order and freedom, stability and change. These things are never resolved, and when a society swings too far in one direction, people always push it the other way. But each time that happens, the result is different. Certainly it is true that we are now in a period when old philosophers and ideas from the 1930s are undergoing a revival. Carl Schmitt, who was a philosopher who was very influential on the Nazis, is back as an influence on both the far left and the far right, once again inspiring people to think that all politics has to be existential, that all politics is about defining and defeating enemies. In the US, some are also bringing back dominionism, the idea that we need a Christian and not a secular state. It’s also true that we are living through a more fundamental shift. The old left-right divide, which was mostly about the size of the state, is much less important now. Instead, we are arguing about more fundamental things: what are our rights, what protects our freedom. Or how much power do we want to give small elites, versus how much power to give ordinary people. In America a small group of very wealthy people now control information, because they control the social media platforms and AI, which means they determine what people will read and learn. Finding a way to preserve preserve zones of autonomy and independent thinking, this is going to be the main task for the next generation. JC: What is the one book that a person interested in Central Europe should read? AA: You could read my book “Iron Curtain: the Crushing of Eastern Europe” which tells the story of how the Soviet Union imposed its culture on the region. Or read Tim Snyder’s history of the region, “The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999.” And everyone should read “The Captive Mind” by Czesław Miłosz, which describes exactly the phenomenon we were talking about: why do people collaborate? I joined Scott Galloway and the brilliant Fiona Hill in a discussion about the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the future of global power, and what these conflicts reveal about America's role in the world. Scott told us that this was the 400th edition of his podcast, which is quite a number: My friend Francesco Chiamulera runs a brilliant series of literary events, Una Colline di Libri, A Hill of Books, in the Prosecco Hills, a region of vineyards and elegant hill towns in the Veneto, north of Venice. We did an event in Vittorio Veneto and also drove and biked around the countryside. Buy Autocracy Inc Buy Iron Curtain Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
It’s my tree. Why can’t I cut it down?
Can the government stop you from cutting down your own tree? In many towns and cities these days, removing a tree now requires a permit. You might have to pay a fee, or promise to plant replacement trees. But sometimes, the city won't let you cut down the tree at all, even a tree in your own backyard.That's because trees are important for air quality, for flood control, and for public health. They help keep neighborhoods cool on hot days. But some think that tree protection laws have gone too far — that they might even be unconstitutional.On today's episode, it's the latest showdown between property rights and local zoning laws. Typically, towns and cities enjoy a lot of power when it comes to zoning and permits. They can ban certain types of buildings. They can make you paint your house a certain color. But can they make it illegal to cut down a tree? And what does it mean to "own" a piece of property anyway?Support:Planet Money+Read: Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletterOur weekly Indicator round-up newsletterFollow: InstagramTikTokYouTubeFacebookThis episode of Planet Money was hosted by Jeff Guo and Amanda Aronczyk. It was produced by James Sneed and Emma Peaslee, edited by Jess Jiang, and fact-checked by Vito Emanuel. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez and Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
How Trump’s reliance on ‘acting’ officials holding multiple jobs tests the Constitution
It feels odd that President Donald Trump tapped a housing expert to oversee the American intelligence community.
Judge upholds Iowa law banning campaign signs at businesses
A federal judge ruled Iowa's law banning political signs on corporate property does not violate the Constitution.
Lee Zeldin revives push for Constitution Pipeline in Southern Tier visit
Zeldin also pushed to overturn New York's statewide fracking ban, which was placed in 2014.
Challenge filed in transgender athlete case
The brief asserts that Bellows, a Democrat who is running for governor, didn’t abide by the state constitution, which gives Mainers broad powers to bring forward citizen initiatives.
Legal battle over Trump's $1.8B 'anti-weaponization' fund rages on
'The Anti-Weaponization Fund presents a threat to our constitutional democracy,' Sens. Cory Booker and Bill Cassidy wrote in a court brief.