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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.
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.
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.
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 […]
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.
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
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.
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.
Armed clashes erupt in Somalia’s capital ahead of a planned anti-government demonstration
Opposition figures say the rally planned for Thursday was intended to protest what they call constitutional violations and efforts by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to extend his tenure. The government has rejected those allegations.
NC House Democrats propose 3 judicial constitutional amendments
Subscribe to Under the Dome to get North Carolina politics news in your inbox daily.
Breaking down New York's proposed redistricting amendment
A constitutional amendment poised for first passage in the New York state Legislature this week could help Democrats gain up to four congressional seats in 2028 if ultimately approved by voters, experts say.
Maryland sheriffs should not be handcuffed by reckless sanctuary politics
Seventeen Maryland sheriffs challenge the state's Community Trust Act in a federal lawsuit filed by FAIR, calling the sanctuary law unconstitutional.
The Virginia Supreme Court Chose Principle Over Politics: Katherine T. Bennett in RealClearPolicy - American Legislative Exchange Council
RealClearPolicy op-ed by Katherine T. Bennett examines Va. Supreme Court ruling striking a redistricting amendment over constitutional law.
The Fragile Coalitions Beneath American Politics
Part 1 of “Today’s Governing Gap,” a three-part series on coalition fragility, governing coherence, and the institutional continuity democratic systems require.American politics looks stable from a distance. Two dominant parties, fiercely competitive elections, a constitutional framework that has he...
“Political Neutrality” in Education? The Fallacy of Neutrality in Academic Activities
--Fernando Romani Sales, PhD candidate in Constitutional Law at the University of São Paulo (USP),[1] and Maria Fernanda Silva Assis, MSc candidate in Law at t
Business leaders join calls for change in how university trustees are picked
A proposed constitutional amendment would task the governor with appointing members of the governing boards for the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University.
ABC stations call FCC's early call for license renewal 'unconstitutional'
ABC-owned TV stations across the U.S. are criticizing the Federal Communications Commission for an early review of their broadcast licenses.
Trump's DOJ sues 4 Democratic-run states over denying undercover license plates for federal agents
The Department of Justice alleges in separate lawsuits announced Thursday that Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington state are imposing unconstitutional restrictions that it says impede law enforcement and threaten agents’ safety.
White House has yet to release health results from Trump’s doctor after latest checkup
There’s no constitutional or legal requirement that a president release his medical records, but it’s been a consistent practice for most modern presidents.
Federal judge refuses to block Trump order to create federal voter list and limit mail voting
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee in Washington, late Wednesday rejected the request by Democrats and civil rights groups that had argued President Donald Trump’s order would likely be found unconstitutional.
Scottish independence: try, try again?
‘Symbolic’ push for referendum shows ‘Scotland’s constitutional future has returned to the core of British politics’
Congressional Black Caucus
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has been committed to using the full Constitutional power, statutory authority, and financial resources of the federal government to ensure that African Americans and other marginalized communities in the United States have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream.
Voice of Business: Property tax changes impact businesses
Proponents for eliminating property taxes in Ohio are gathering signatures from over 400,000 registered voters to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the Nov. 3, 2026, ballot. However, they stated
N.Y. state Court of Appeals hears social media hateful conduct case
The courts are weighing and analyzing the constitutionality behind reporting and enforcing hateful conduct online.
Bonus 228: The $1.776B Political Question
Every so often a story comes along that is so brazen, so cleanly emblematic of the moment we are living through, that staying quiet about it feels like a kind of complicity unto itself. Monday’s announcement by the Department of Justice that the Acting Attorney General has unilaterally created a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to compensate so-called “victims of lawfare” is one of those stories. And the reason I want to write about it here, in a newsletter ostensibly devoted to the Supreme Court and the law and politics surrounding it, is that I’m increasingly worried that we’re asking the wrong institution to save us from one of the most offensive, alarming, and anti-constitutional things we’ve seen from any president in American history. As I explain below the fold, the Anti-Weaponization Fund is not principally a legal problem awaiting a judicial fix. It is a shockingly egregious political abuse—the President suing his own government, purporting to settle with himself, and routing nearly $2 billion from the Treasury to his own supporters as a not-so-subtle (and not-so-formal) reward, if not an incentive, for political violence. And the Constitution’s answer to political abuses of this kind and magnitude is a political remedy, not a legal one. In his majority opinion in NFIB v. Sebelius (the Affordable Care Act case from 2012), Chief Justice Roberts defended the Court’s endorsement of Congress’s power to adopt the individual mandate by noting that it is “not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.” As much of a judicial supremacist as I am, that sentiment is, for better or worse, an entirely correct (and, in the long term, normatively desirable) institutional assessment. One can believe in substantial judicial power without believing that literally every political dispute in our country can and should be resolved by unelected judges. The real upshot of this latest headline (among so, so many other similar headlines) is that it is past time to reinvigorate impeachment—not because conviction is realistic in this Senate, or even because impeachment itself is feasible in this House, but because forcing every member of Congress to vote on the record whether this brazen, corrosive, and affirmatively dangerous corruption is impeachable is itself a point worth fighting for (and fighting with our friends over). Assuming the courts will save us absolves our political leaders of both responsibility and accountability for allowing this kind of mischief to continue, and it absolves all of us of our responsibility to refuse to tolerate those who would just as quickly shrug their shoulders and move on. For those who aren’t paid subscribers, we’ll be back (no later than) Monday with our continuing coverage of the Supreme Court. For those who are, please read on.
NC lawmakers pass bill to place amendment on ballot that would limit property taxes
North Carolina lawmakers in the House and Senate passed HB 1089, which places a constitutional ballot in November to enact a property tax levy limit.
N.Y. Assembly speaker eyes 2 constitutional amendments for redistricting reform
Redistricting has been a heightened issue with the time lawmakers have left this year at the state Capitol.
Mace targets Squad Dem with proposed constitutional ban on foreign-born lawmakers
Rep. Nancy Mace proposes expanding the natural-born citizen requirement beyond the presidency to Congress, federal judges and cabinet appointees.
Nashville leaders weigh changes to home business rules after court ruling
Metro Council will consider easing restrictions on home-based businesses after a court ruled in favor of businesses, saying that some restrictions Metro has in place are unconstitutional.
Supreme Court deals blow to Virginia Democrats in fight over state court ruling
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Virginia Democrats’ emergency appeal seeking to revive a voter-approved congressional redistricting overhaul, leaving intact a Virginia Supreme Court ruling that struck down the effort as unconstitutional ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Grand jury indicts 2 petition circulators in 2024 signature-forgery case
A statewide grand jury has indicted two petition circulators on allegations that they forged signatures while gathering support for a proposed constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot. According to Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, the circulators — Cherell Long of Nevada and Martin Arellano of Texas — were working for a Colorado Springs–based canvassing firm […]
In delayed U.S. House vote, Louisiana poised to temporarily move back to open primaries
Gov. Jeff Landry suspended the elections after the Supreme Court ruled the current voting map unconstitutional.
Kash Patel and the Trump administration’s mockery of congressional hearings
Top Trump administration officials have made it abundantly clear from Day One just how little regard they have for Congress, including and possibly especially its constitutional oversight duties.
Colorado legislators abandon proposal targeting natural gas initiative
Colorado lawmakers pulled back plans to counter a proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right of consumers to use natural gas. The bill’s backers said the legislation would not have significantly affected the initiative’s impact, even as debate intensifies among environmental groups, the oil and gas industry and policymakers. The bill — initially planned by House […]
Chicago Teachers Union wants $8.5 million dues hike to fund politics
“Has your brand become toxic?” This was a pointed question from WGN Political Editor Tahman Bradley, posed to Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates in a recent interview. Her immediate response: “I don’t understand the question.” When pressed, Gates added, “The Chicago Teachers Union is not a political party, it is a labor union.” But internal union documents show CTU leadership is trying to skim $8.5 million more from teacher paychecks explicitly for politics, while trying to silence union members critical of Gates’ leadership. Under the proposed dues hike, Chicago teachers would see up to $800 more per year flow from their paychecks to union coffers. The union already takes in more than $40 million a year, mostly from dues. And it spends less than 18 cents of every dollar on teacher representation. The No. 1 reason for the proposed dues hike? Politics. “We must win a majority of the first 21 person fully elected school board in November,” reads the first point in CTU’s member FAQ document.1 This directly contradicts CTU’s promise to members about how leadership uses dues money. The official CTU handbook tells members that the union does not use dues money for politics, so if they are interested in funding political activity, they should consider voluntary donations to CTU’s political action committee. “Our dues are not used for political purposes,” according to the handbook. “So our PAC relies on extra contributions from our members to support progressive candidates and to impact elected officials at the city, county and state levels.” This kind of double-speak is one reason members are concerned about another constitutional change slipped into the dues hike vote, which will take place on May 20-21: an attempt to stop members from holding the union accountable. A proposed amendment to the union constitution tries to place limits on when members may bring a lawsuit against the union for violating members’ rights.2 This provision is clearly a response to members’ lawsuit against union leadership regarding Gates’ years-long refusal to publish audited financial statements. The judge in that case has repeatedly denied the union’s attempts to dismiss it. Teachers opposed to these changes have been circulating this flier, urging members to vote no. What will CTU members get in return for millions of dollars in additional dues? If the 2024 school board elections are any indication—not much. CTU leadership’s record on school board races may not inspire confidence among members. A Chicago Policy Center analysis of a dozen affiliated PACs found CTU spent nearly $2.9 million on school board races in 2024. Of that spending, more than $2.1 million (75%) went to losing candidates. And while CTU-backed candidates lost six of the nine competitive seats overall, they fared worse in their biggest-spending races, losing five of six contests in which the union and its affiliates put up more than $250,000 for their candidate. The Chicago school board elections take place Nov. 3.3 Is another $8.5 million enough to clean up a toxic reputation? Not likely. Update on federal tax credit scholarship: Last week, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she plans to opt into the federal tax credit scholarship program. If Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker follows suit, Illinois could unlock $1 billion in donor money statewide for both public- and private-school students. If Illinois does not opt in, that money will flow to other states. The Last Ward reported in February on how Illinois Democrats could unlock at least $100 million in new resources for Chicago public-school students by opting in. Update on the investigation into how Chicagoans learned about a meeting to hike their property taxes: The Last Ward reported in January on an absurd, taxpayer-funded investigation into how local media learned of a planned Chicago school board meeting to hike the district’s property tax levy. That investigation is now complete. Lawyers interviewed two dozen witnesses, and found nothing. Update on Illinois’ muni debt crisis: My colleague Joe Tabor last week published a must-read piece in Crain’s Chicago Business about how Illinois recently rejected south suburban Harvey’s request to be designated a “distressed city.” The saga shows why the state must implement a better structure to assist insolvent local governments, including allowing for the option to pursue debt relief via Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The Last Ward reported in October on how Harvey is tipping the first domino in Illinois’ municipal debt crisis. Mincing Rascals: I joined the Mincing Rascals podcast to discuss the SAFE-T Act, the millionaires tax, and more. My “green light” recommendation: Force Majeure (2014). 1 Notably, the No. 2 reason cited is “resources to fund a state-wide millionaires tax campaign in order to fully fund the state’s school funding formula.” The constitutional amendment necessary to implement a progressive income tax in Illinois recently died in the Illinois House, meaning this question would not appear on the ballot until 2028 at the earliest. 2 There is seemingly no single-subject rule for CTU constitutional amendments. So members only get one vote on the full package. One cannot vote “yes” on the dues hike and “no” on the restriction of members’ rights, for example. 3 Illinois law grants far too much power over local government to unelected officials like Gates. State lawmakers should fix that.
Opinion: US constitutional freedom now twisted to mean abusing others
The United States' great story is inventing constitutional democracy out of monarchy. Now it's the story of freedom to exploit and abuse others.
ABC argues Trump administration is trying to chill free speech
In a filing, ABC accuses the Trump administration of trying to chill its constitutionally protected free speech. The point of contention: "The View," and whether it's subject to equal time rules.
Proposed NC constitutional amendment would ban corporate political spending
A North Carolina lawmaker wants voters to decide whether corporations should be allowed to spend money to influence elections in the state.
Virginia Supreme Court blocks Democratic-drawn congressional map voters approved in April
The court ruled that Democrats did not follow proper procedure when they put the constitutional amendment on the ballot in an effort to flip four House seats.
Virginia Supreme Court rules on new congressional map
The ruling is a significant victory for Republicans in the state, who argued the map was an "unconstitutional power grab," and would grant Democrats a 10-1 advantage.
Judge rules DOGE's cancellation of humanities grants was unconstitutional
She permanently barred the administration from terminating the grants
Judge rules Trump administration’s cancellation of humanities grants was unconstitutional
The Trump administration’s cancellation of more than $100 million in humanities grants to scholars, writers, research groups and other organizations was unconstitutional, and the Department of Government Efficiency had no authority to end the funding, a federal judge in New York ruled on Thursday.
See how federal workers respond to Elon Musk's '5 things' emails
Nonprofit Citizens for Constitutional Integrity released the first batch of emails from federal workers responding to Elon Musk's DOGE directive.
Supreme Court justices spar over Louisiana’s effort to speed up elimination of majority-Black congressional district
The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for Louisiana to redraw a hotly contested congressional map that the court ruled days earlier was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, a highly technical decision that sparked a bitter back-and-forth between three conservatives and a member of the court’s liberal wing.
WA Supreme Court tosses one referendum attempt to upend new income tax
This won’t be the state high court’s last word on the income tax, as it will need to weigh in on its constitutionality before collections can begin.
Louisiana constitutional amendment could change who gets civil service job protections
Proponents say the change would be a move toward improved government efficiency. Opponents say it would increase political influence in government jobs that should be nonpartisan.
Cleo Fields, other House candidates ask to join to lawsuit over Louisiana suspending election
U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields has asked a judge to join a lawsuit challenging Gov. Jeff Landry’s suspension of congressional primaries in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling declaring Louisiana’s U.S. House map unconstitutional.
Britain enters the era of seven-party politics
Labour and the Conservatives combined account for barely a third of voters in polls — threatening the UK’s constitutional certainties
Attorney for Courtney Durrett: Tennessee primary voting law is unconstitutional
An attorney for Knox County Commissioner Courtney Durrett told DA Charme Allen the law Republicans accuse her of breaking is unconstitutional.
After Supreme Court Decision, Louisiana Weighs Redrawing House Maps
It was not immediately clear whether Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, would postpone the May 16 primary election for House races after the court ruled the state’s congressional districts unconstitutional.
Louisiana governor expected to delay some May primaries after Supreme Court ruling, sources tell CNN
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to suspend at least some contests in his state’s May 16 primary election following the US Supreme Court’s decision invalidating his state’s congressional map and calling it an unconstitutional gerrymander.
Louisiana constitutional amendment would let parishes stop taxing business inventory
Here’s what to know about the amendment, which will appear on the May 16 ballot. Early voting starts Saturday.
Trump Fires National Science Foundation Board, Including 2 Catholic Scientists
U.S. President Donald Trump has eliminated the National Science Foundation board, citing “constitutional questions” raised in a 2021 Supreme Court case.
Trump fires National Science Foundation board, including 2 Catholic scientists
U.S. President Donald Trump has eliminated the National Science Foundation board, citing “constitutional questions” raised in a 2021 Supreme Court case.
Supreme Court rules Louisiana’s Congressional maps are ‘unconstitutional racial gerrymander’
The ruling will have huge implications for elections not just in Louisiana but across the country.
Virginia Supreme Court considers GOP challenge to voter-approved redistricting plan favoring Democrats
Virginia's Supreme Court is considering whether a voter-approved redistricting amendment complied with the state's constitutional requirements.
Judge appears skeptical of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against IRS and Treasury
A federal judge on Friday questioned the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury Department over the leak of his tax returns, ordering a hearing to determine whether the president can sue federal agencies that he oversees.
Defeated Virginia Republicans regroup for last chance fight to save House majority
Virginia's redistricting fight heads to the state Supreme Court after a judge declared ballot language unconstitutional and blocked certification.
From ‘Human Fracking’ to Women’s Health: 6 Takeaways from Research Day
Fordham University experts lead new studies on AI cybersecurity, constitutional law reform, and the impact of perimenopause on the brain.
White House tells court it’s preserving presidential records even though DOJ said law is unconstitutional
White House staff are still following the “preservation” mandates of the Presidential Records Act, the Justice Department told a federal court as it pushes back on a new lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s disavowal of a Watergate-era documents law.
A state-by-state look at the narrowing redistricting battle for the U.S. House
Virginia voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment authorizing a Democratic redistricting plan that could help the party win several additional House seats in this year’s elections. Next up could be Florida.
Constitutional Challenges to the False Claims Act: an Opportunity to Reconsider DOJ’s “Money Over Everything” Approach to Health Care Enforcement - Petrie-Flom Center
The False Claims Act — the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) efforts to combat health care fraud — is under constitutional attack.
Virginia voters back redistricting amendment after months of legal and political battles
Virginia voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment allowing mid-decade congressional redistricting, a move expected to dramatically reshape the state’s political map and potentially shift its congressional delegation from a closely divided 6-5 split to a heavily Democratic-leaning 10-1 advantage.
Supreme Court’s high-stakes term could reshape presidential power, immigration, voting rights
The Supreme Court’s term is packed — birthright citizenship, presidential removals, voting rules, transgender sports and more. Constitutional law expert Rod Sullivan joins News4JAX anchor Bruce Hamilton on this week’s episode of Politics & Power to discuss what’s at stake and why it matters to you.
Virginia voters to decide whether to allow a new Democratic-drawn map for the midterms
A constitutional amendment is on the ballot Tuesday that would pave the way for Democrats to enact a congressional map that’s designed to net them up to four seats.
The $166 Billion Tariff Refund Portal Is Now Open: How Your Business Can File a Claim Today
A new federal portal opened Monday, giving importers their first chance to recover duties ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court will hear from religious preschools challenging exclusion from taxpayer-funded program
The faith-based facilities argue it's unconstitutional to bar them from a taxpayer-funded free preschool program because of their admission restrictions on LGBTQ+ families and kids.
Businesses can claim refunds for Trump tariffs ruled unconstitutional starting Monday
It’s the first step in a complicated process that also might eventually lead to refunds for consumers who were billed for some or all of the tariffs on products shipped to them from outside the U.S.
Starting Monday, businesses can claim refunds for Trump’s unconstitutional tariffs. But it will take 60-90 days to get paid
Importers and their brokers will be able to begin claiming refunds through an online portal beginning at 8 a.m., according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Businesses can claim refunds for Trump tariffs ruled unconstitutional starting Monday
A refund system for businesses that paid tariffs ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to launch Monday.
Businesses can claim refunds for Trump tariffs ruled unconstitutional starting Monday
A refund system for businesses that paid tariffs which the U.S. Supreme Court eventually struck down is scheduled to launch on Monday.
Businesses can claim refunds for Trump tariffs ruled unconstitutional starting Monday
A refund system for businesses that paid tariffs which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump imposed without the constitutional authority to do so is scheduled to launch Monday. Importers and their brokers will be able to begin claiming refunds through an online portal beginning at 8 a.m., according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency administering the system. It's the first step in a complicated process that also might eventually lead to refunds for consumers who were billed for some or all of the tariffs on products shipped to them from outside the United States.
The Founders Built Safeguards. Our Politics Rendered Them Useless
When every constitutional check stalls, the voters remain the only safeguard the system still relies on
OR gov. vows fight after court says parts of reproductive rights act unconstitutional
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is criticizing an oral ruling in Oregon that found the Oregon Reproductive Health Equity Act unconstitutional.
Spanberger's 'unconstitutional' push to redefine presidential elections makes voters 'NULL AND VOID': critics
Virginia joins the national popular vote compact as Gov. Spanberger signs bill awarding electoral votes to the national popular vote winner.
Postal Service, Under Pressure, Now Faces Trump’s Mail Ballot Order
President Trump’s executive order, which has been challenged as unconstitutional, would limit the Postal Service to sending only the ballots of voters deemed eligible.
What’s at stake as Michigan voters weigh constitutional convention question
Conservatives could try to repeal the state constitution's guarantee of the right to an abortion.
Note to Colorado lawmakers — parents protecting kids isn’t abuse, it’s their job
By Matt Sharp and Sharon Supp During the last few years, the U.S. Supreme Court has made at least one thing clear: Colorado is consistently overreaching to apply its laws in unconstitutional ways. Colorado treated a cake artist with hostility because of his religious beliefs in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The state […]
3L Rachel Sadler Charts Path in Brain Health, Technology, and Policy Through UC Law SF’s Health Law Concentration - UC Law San Francisco (Formerly UC Hastings)
3L Rachel Sadler studies health law and policy at UC Law SF while researching the legal implications of neurotechnology and other emerging tools that may affect human cognition. 3L student Rachel Sadler shares how UC Law SF’s Health Law Concentration prepared her for a career focused on the intersection of brain health, government policy, and technology. Gained a detailed understanding of how U.S. health care is regulated and where policy reform is needed through coursework and research. Interned with state and federal agencies that regulate health care services and worked with a major health care provider’s bioethics department. Plans to pursue a career focused on protecting cognitive liberty and mental privacy as new technologies reshape healthcare. 3L Rachel Sadler: The Health Law Concentration has given me fluency in one of the most complex regulated industries and the tools to become an effective advocate for better health policy. Before coming to law school, I spent a decade teaching and working with teachers and administrators on high school programming for multilingual learners. Healthcare kept emerging as the most powerful driver of student outcomes. I wanted to understand how to make effective policy change in this area and how to use existing law to defend people’s health rights in California. Through the concentration’s coursework, I gained a sophisticated understanding of how U.S. healthcare is regulated. I also learned where the pressure points for reform exist. The courses gave me space to develop what became my central research interest: how law and policy can be built to protect human cognition and healthy brain development, particularly regarding new technologies such as generative AI and neurotechnology. The health law faculty were instrumental in that process, genuinely invested in helping me and other students define and pursue our own intellectual vision. During law school, I interned at the General Counsel’s Office for Region IX of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I also externed at the California Department of Justice’s Health, Education and Welfare Division. Additionally, I externed at Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s Bioethics Department. Alongside those placements, I conducted extensive independent research on mental privacy and emerging neurotechnology, working closely with Professors Emily Murphy and George Horvath. That research became the throughline of my law school experience and the foundation of my current policy focus. I must also credit Nicole Ozer of the Center for Constitutional Democracy (CCD), whose deep knowledge of California privacy law and the public-interest privacy landscape deeply informed my work. I currently serve a research assistant with the CCD, where I spearhead the development of K-12 educational resources in partnership with law faculty and students. I’ve found UC Law SF to be an ideal place for second-career, nontraditional students. There is a tremendous diversity of life and career experience here, and I felt fully welcomed into the community, despite returning as a student at a different stage of life. I came to law school wanting to promote equity in California’s healthcare system. I am leaving with a sharper and more specific ambition: to build a policy career focused on protecting cognitive liberty and mental privacy from technological intrusion. This is both an urgent and underserved area of law, and I want to be part of defining this landscape going forward. Whether as a practicing attorney or a policy advisor, I plan to work on these issues after law school. I strongly recommend UC Law SF and the Health Law Concentration. When I arrived in law school, I worried the concentration would be narrow and that my non-clinical background would be a disadvantage. The opposite was true. The health law faculty thinks about health expansively, encompassing social determinants of health, structural inequity, and emerging technologies alongside the regulatory mechanics of the industry. The faculty are accessible, intellectually generous, and genuinely invested in students’ development. I found my research vision here, and I deeply appreciate the concentration’s role in this. The Evidence of Success series highlights UC Law SF students as they share how the College’s opportunities equip them with the experience, skills, and confidence to excel in the legal profession.
Conservative Activists Take Aim At Native Hawaiian Health Scholarship
A new lawsuit filed by a legal advocacy nonprofit says a 35-year-old federal scholarship program that brought Native Hawaiian doctors to the islands is unconstitutional.
Half of US States Are Now in Revolt Over Money in Politics
Idaho became the 25th state Wednesday to formally urge Congress to propose a constitutional amendment that allows federal and state legislative bodies to have greater authority over the flow of money in US politics.
Political divisions fuel push to have Texas annex part of New Mexico
The Texas House speaker directed a committee to study the constitutional and economic impact of adding a couple of New Mexico counties to Texas.
‘Seismic change’: how election wins for nationalists in Celtic nations could reshape UK
With polls suggesting Plaid Cymru, the SNP and Sinn Féin could be in power after May vote, constitutional challenges may lie ahead
Supreme Court weighs birthright citizenship
Justices seem doubtful of constitutionality of Trump executive order
Republicans who want to opt out of Colorado’s primaries get major boost from federal judge’s ruling
The judge ruled the requirement that 75% of the Colorado GOP or the Colorado Democratic Party must support opting out of the primaries before it can happen “constitutes a severe burden on the major parties’ right to association and is therefore unconstitutional."