Courtroom sketch depicting Supreme Court justices, from left, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, listening to arguments on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, in Washington.

Books

The Case for a Shadow Court

by Garrett Epps September 17, 2026September 18, 2026

Our constitutional system is being torn asunder. Enter an intriguing idea from a great legal mind.

Could the Clerk of the House lead a midterm coup? Garrett Epps looks to 1863 and 1865 for warnings about our current crisis.

Law and Justice

Can the House Clerk Lead a Midterm Coup?

by Garrett Epps September 16, 2026September 16, 2026

It’s happened before. History underscores how rickety our elections and democracy are.

Trump has floated ways to disrupt the 2026 midterms, from mail voting crackdowns to ICE at the polls. Here’s why voters still have power.

Law and Justice

Trump’s Election Subversion Plans?

by Garrett Epps July 6, 2026July 15, 2026

Which ones are most concerning, and how you can save democracy.

Wong Kim Ark of the 1898 birthright citizenship case

Law and Justice

Roberts Slays Trump’s Ludicrous Birthright Citizenship Order

by Garrett Epps July 1, 2026July 3, 2026

Roberts Slays Trump’s Ludicrous Birthright Citizenship Order. While Thomas tries to justify caste, Jackson makes it clear the post-Civil War Amendments were “not a mere spot treatment for the dark stain of slavery.”

Third Term? Attorney Alan Dershowitz, background center left in blue shirt, listens to remarks by President Donald Trump during his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, in May 2024.

Books

Alan Dershowitz: Trump Can Serve a Third Term

by Garrett Epps April 2, 2026May 5, 2026

The famous author and law professor argues that the president isn’t prevented from serving a third term. This former Dershowitz admirer begs to differ.

Grave Echos: Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, pictured here, wrote the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision, which denied Black Americans citizenship; the Court’s decision in Trump v. Barbara could again create a form of hereditary legal inferiority in America.

Law and Justice

Birthright Citizenship: Supreme Court Could Create an Exploitable Noncitizen Class

by Garrett Epps March 30, 2026March 29, 2026

Trump’s bid to strip birthright citizenship from millions is a moral, administrative, and legal catastrophe that the Fourteenth Amendment was enacted to prevent. That’s why he’s pursuing it.

Newport, Oregon fights ICE Detention Facility

Magazine

Crabs, A Helicopter, and One Town’s Fight Against ICE

by Garrett Epps March 9, 2026May 5, 2026

As ICE creates new deportation centers, Newport, on the quirky, impossibly beautiful Oregon coast, finds itself a battleground in Trump’s war on immigrants. It’s not alone as ICE plans for hosts of detention centers in small towns.

Abolish ICE: Trump's ICE agents and other federal law enforcement in North Minneapolis, United States, on January 14, 2026.

Law and Justice

Trump’s ICE Problem—and Ours

by Garrett Epps February 2, 2026February 1, 2026

Thanks to conservative justices, the law doesn’t allow him to compel cities, like Minneapolis, to bow to his immigration orders, and so he used ICE thuggery. It backfired. Now what?

Podcast

How Democrats Lost Rural Voters—and How to Win Them Back

by Anne Kim and Garrett Epps January 28, 2026October 14, 2026

Neglect and disdain of rural voters have driven them from the Democratic party, argue authors Suzanne Mettler and Trevor Brown. That’s bad news for democracy.