U.S. politics and policy, covered with an eye toward international implications.
Senators Tom Cotton and Mike Lee are circulating draft legislation on birthright citizenship in anticipation of a Supreme Court ruling against the executive order expected by late June.
May 18, 2026 · 6 min read
The Senate voted 52 to 48 Friday evening to discharge the War Powers Resolution on the Iran blockade. Five Republicans joined every Democrat to override the leadership.
May 16, 2026 · 5 min read
The Senate will vote Friday evening on a discharge motion for the War Powers Resolution. Four Republicans have committed to yes, putting Vice President Vance in position to break a tie.
May 15, 2026 · 5 min read
The House voted 217 to 216 on Thursday afternoon to discharge the War Powers Resolution from committee. Three Republicans joined every Democrat to override Speaker Johnson.
May 14, 2026 · 5 min read
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a closed-door briefing with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday afternoon. Senators of both parties pressed for an exit timeline.
May 12, 2026 · 5 min read
Speaker Mike Johnson told the House Republican Conference on Monday morning that the War Powers Resolution on the Iran blockade will not receive a floor vote in May.
May 11, 2026 · 5 min read
Immigration and Customs Enforcement teams arrested 1,247 illegal aliens across seven states on Saturday in the largest coordinated single-day enforcement action of the Trump administration's second term.
May 10, 2026 · 5 min read
Senator Rand Paul filed a Senate companion to the House War Powers Resolution challenging the Iran blockade on Saturday, with five Republican and three Democratic cosponsors.
May 9, 2026 · 5 min read
The Republican-controlled legislature ended a three-day special session Thursday by approving a map that fragments Memphis, the state's lone majority-Black congressional district, into three districts and that Republicans expect will deliver a 9-0 GOP delegation in 2026. Democratic lawmakers walked off the floor, troopers arrested protesters who tried to reach the chamber, and litigation under the new Callais standard is expected to begin within days.
May 8, 2026 · 6 min read
The May 6 debate, hosted by NBC and Telemundo Los Angeles, produced sharp exchanges over the January wildfires, the city's homelessness response, and the dwindling Hollywood film industry, four weeks before the June 2 primary that will determine which two candidates advance to a November runoff.
May 7, 2026 · 6 min read
The 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, written by Justice Alito and made effective immediately by a May 4 forthwith order, holds that Louisiana's two majority-minority congressional districts violate the Fifteenth Amendment and reshapes the legal framework that has governed redistricting since the 1990s.
May 5, 2026 · 6 min read
A bipartisan letter from 47 House members, organized through the Foreign Affairs Committee and including 31 Republicans, has invoked Section 5 of the War Powers Resolution to demand a floor vote on the continuing naval blockade of Iranian ports, opening a constitutional confrontation with the administration that the 60-day clock will force into the open by June 11 whether the Speaker schedules a vote or not.
May 2, 2026 · 6 min read
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated three regional Chinese banks and three Hong Kong-based trade-finance houses Monday for processing roughly $4 billion in payments tied to Iranian oil exports during the first quarter, the most direct sanctions confrontation with Beijing since the Iran war began and a calibrated test of how far the Treasury can press without triggering the kind of Chinese retaliation that derails broader administration objectives in the Pacific.
April 27, 2026 · 5 min read
Prosecutors allege the SPLC used $3 million in donor funds to secretly pay leaders of extremist groups as informants, funneling money through fictitious entities. One informant received over $1 million while affiliated with a neo-Nazi organization.
April 22, 2026 · 3 min read
Several justices appeared skeptical of the executive order during Tuesday's oral arguments in the most consequential citizenship case to reach the Court since 1898, but the questioning suggested the Court may issue a narrow ruling on presidential authority rather than reaching the deeper constitutional question of what 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof' actually requires. A decision is expected by late June.
April 2, 2026 · 7 min read
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which prohibits any investor owning 350 or more single-family homes from purchasing additional ones, now heads to a conference committee with the House, which passed its own version in February by 390 to 9.
March 21, 2026 · 6 min read
Two new Section 301 investigations covering 16 economies signal that the Trump administration's tariff policy is accelerating, not retreating, despite the Supreme Court's IEEPA setback.
March 12, 2026 · 4 min read
The IEEPA ruling was a rare check on executive trade power. The administration's pivot to Section 122 raises a new question: does the president have any trade authority that courts will sustain?
March 8, 2026 · 4 min read
The confirmation of a sanctions policy specialist signals the administration's intent to expand the use of financial tools in great-power competition.
March 5, 2026 · 3 min read
The proposed restructuring would merge regional bureaus and cut special envoy positions, raising questions about whether efficiency gains justify diplomatic disruption.
February 27, 2026 · 2 min read
A new bipartisan proposal would double employment-based green cards while calling itself reform. Expanding legal immigration is not reform. It is more of the same problem.
February 21, 2026 · 5 min read