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Politics-The Conversation
5 lessons from 20 years of climate surveys: Political party matters, but it doesn’t explain everything
Why would a young Republican back solar but reject a carbon tax? Twenty years of survey data shows climate opinion is more complex than party labels s...
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Declassified intelligence is not the same as proof
An international affairs professor with nearly 30 years of experience in the US intelligence community – including at the CIA and NSA – explains how t...
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What Allegheny County’s new court-ordered mental health treatment program can and can’t do
Allegheny County can now order treatment for people with serious mental illness. But what’s driving results – the order itself or the services behind ...
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Most Americans support conservation – here’s how the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative got politicians from both parties on board too
An analysis of one major effort shows how to get Democrats and Republicans to agree to spend billions of dollars on a decades-long environmental resto...
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Featuring Trump on US coins and bills would put America in rare company
A professor of international relations counted the sitting leaders on over 1,000 of the world’s banknotes and coins; almost every one of them is a kin...
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How America’s newspapers lost their voice
Despite the steady decline in daily newspaper editorials, a longtime editor suggests ways for news organizations to restore the spirit of editorials t...
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Republicans control Congress, so why is Trump’s SAVE America Act stuck?
Republicans hold both chambers and publicly back the president’s signature bill that would curtail mail-in voting and enforce strict voter ID laws. He...
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The Trump administration’s global campaign against ‘radical left terrorism’ is built on a national security memo without congressional approval
Almost a year after President Trump authorized preemptive law enforcement measures based on political or ideological beliefs, a wave of terrorism pros...
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Rubio’s international ‘antifa summit’ took place after Trump’s national security policy had already sent left-wing US activists to prison for decades
Almost a year after President Trump authorized preemptive law enforcement measures based on political or ideological beliefs, a wave of terrorism pros...
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Why Trump’s move to gut the Endangered Species Act likely won’t hold up in court
If Congress didn’t believe habitat destruction and degradation constitute ‘harm’ under the statute, why would it require permits and plans to offset h...
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After 1776, the founders designed a government that accounts for ‘a degree of depravity in mankind’
After the colonists declared their independence, designing a government was next. Three of the founding generation said the new government needed to a...
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Can a power company take your land to support a data center? It depends
Courts have long let utilities seize private property to build transmission lines. Does that hold if the power flows to a single data center?
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How Lindsey Graham’s keen ability to read the moment propelled him to political relevance for 3 decades
Sen. Graham repeatedly moved in the direction South Carolina and Republican politics were headed rather than where they had been.
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As lawmakers politicize the 250th anniversary, Americans are looking for unity over division
While discord exists over the meaning of the 250th anniversary, Americans strongly believe there is more that unites the country than divides it.
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Cuba’s future remains in limbo while Trump’s unpredictable foreign policy offers no clear path forward
Cubans are living in a state of limbo, and it’s not clear that US military intervention would revitalize the Cuban economy.
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For nearly 250 years, the US has had eyes on Latin America – but interventions then looked rather different
Now as then, the US supported forces that wanted to change the political situation in Venezuela.
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When a congressman beat a senator unconscious, America confronted the limits of free speech
The beating of Sen. Charles Sumner in 1856 by Rep. Preston Brooks over a speech against slavery sparked a nationwide debate over free speech, politica...
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How redefining one word strips the Endangered Species Act’s ability to protect vital habitat
The majority of endangered species listings over the years have involved habitat loss, from Chinook salmon to island foxes and many birds.
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Republicans have beef with Texas Rep. James Talarico – why does meat matter in US politics?
Two communication scholars explain how what Americans eat became shorthand for who they are.
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The US murder rate fell to historic lows in 2025 – here’s why
Most people credit policing or the lack of it, but the real story tracks three trends that rose and fell together.
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Justice Jackson’s birthright citizenship opinion includes Black Americans in the story of the nation’s search for equality
Jackson’s concurrence traces the 14th Amendment to work done by people ‘beyond Congress’ and Black Americans who ‘helped galvanize the push for full e...
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Why Colorado replaced its AI discrimination law with a transparency requirement that the feds might challenge anyway
Colorado watered down its AI legislation but may still face litigation from the Department of Justice.
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Graham Platner’s campaign implosion highlights the hollowness of America’s political parties and how they can be hijacked by insurgents
Graham Platner’s Senate campaign has imploded amid credible accusations of rape. A Maine political scientist looks at what happened and how the populi...
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Florida’s proposed property tax cuts rely on a population boom that has slowed dramatically
Florida’s population boom has fizzled to just 0.9% growth as domestic migration slows to a trickle.
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Young women are identifying as less straight; young men, not so much
The boundaries of heterosexuality are bending for women but not for men, who appear to have less room to explore and are bound to a more rigid, tradit...
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Why the DOJ is investigating Philadelphia after police stripped gun permits from Black Panthers-inspired group
Philadelphia police revoked the carry licenses of five members of the Black Lion Party for International Solidarity, citing ‘good cause.’ Is that cons...
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Democratic socialists aren’t the only young, progressive Democrats dividing the party
How will Democrats in Congress deal with the DSA-affiliated candidates likely to join their ranks in the new year? There are lessons from the tea part...
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How health insurers get a free pass to deny coverage from a 52-year-old law meant to protect worker pensions
A little-known law called ERISA bars millions of patients from suing for damages when health insurers wrongly deny claims.
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Military voters were at the heart of the Supreme Court’s mail-in ballot decision
Mail-in voting was created during the Civil War so soldiers could vote. That legacy helped shape how the Supreme Court ruled more than 160 years later...
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As the US turns 250, a forgotten founding influence helps explain its current unease
Montesquieu shaped how Americans understood liberty, and his warning about a ‘tyranny of opinion’ speaks to today’s polarization.
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Why Denver stopped treating sidewalk repair as a DIY project – lessons for other cities and homeowners
New legislation in Denver created a program to build, repair and maintain sidewalks throughout the city.
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‘In the end the court did its job’ – a former federal judge reviews a Supreme Court term full of momentous decisions
A former federal judge analyzes key Supreme Court decisions this term, reflects on growing judicial invective evident in its opinions, and judiciously...
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Banning transgender girls from school sports affects all children – why allowing strangers to scrutinize children’s bodies may put all girls at risk o...
The US Supreme Court ruled that states could exclude transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports teams.
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Data center fights pit social values, democracy and capitalism against each other
Data center proposals are often local controversies with significant underlying principles at stake.
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How public celebrations quietly remake what it means to be American
From a synagogue’s 5K to Appalachia’s Hillbilly Days, shared celebrations pull strangers together.
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In a rebuke to Trump, the Supreme Court rules that birthright citizenship is the law of the land
Pointing to the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, the high court ruled that all babies born in the United States ‘are citizens by birth.’
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In rebuke to Trump, Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, emphasizing the promise of equality in the Declaration of Independence
Pointing to the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, the high court ruled that all babies born in the United States ‘are citizens by birth.’
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Political parties can now spend unlimited money supporting candidates, after Supreme Court overturns decades of precedent
A huge amount of money flows into campaigns in the United States. For 20 years, the Supreme Court has been loosening rules for who can contribute and ...
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Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Slaughter turbocharges presidential power
The high court’s ruling effectively endorses the unitary executive theory, greatly expanding the power of the president.
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How a tiny Caribbean island made American independence possible
The American Revolution was won not just by ideals and armies, but by the strategic trade networks of a small Caribbean port.
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Supreme Court rules your cellphone location data is protected by the Fourth Amendment
Geofencing warrants, which round up the location data of everyone in a specific place at a specific time, are now legally subject to Fourth Amendment ...
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Washington DC’s physical appearance has long been a battleground for competing national ideals and presidential visions
President Donald Trump’s capital redesign follows centuries of debate and discussion about how Washington should look to the world.
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In 2 landmark decisions, the Supreme Court expands gun rights for concealed carry holders and casual drug users
Two recent Supreme Court rulings suggest the high court is so pro-gun it has decided it must also be pro-drugs.
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The danger of US-Iran ceasefire agreement is what it leaves out
A strong deal would build in real penalties for going back to war: automatic, reversible costs that fall on anyone who restarts the fighting.
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How the US Supreme Court decides its cases – a step-by-step guide
Grasping how the nation’s highest court makes policy requires stepping into an exceptionally regulated and sometimes hidden routine.
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I study the Declaration of Independence, and here’s why the colonists’ grievances are surprisingly relevant, 250 years later
A partisan judiciary, arbitrary power, officials beyond the reach of the people – these are the grievances that drove a revolution.
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Pennsylvania coroners refuse to release autopsy reports – and that hinders research on deaths in custody
When coroners shield their records from public view, they’re not just violating the public trust. Often, they’re also breaking the law.
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Why thousands of federal lawyers leaving government service matters for everyone in the justice system
More than 10,000 attorneys who worked for the US government have left their jobs during the second Trump administration; a former federal judge analyz...
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Medication abortion: Decisions from federal courts, the FDA or Trump’s Department of Justice could try to end access via telehealth
This year, decisions from the courts, FDA or DOJ could all shut down telehealth for medication abortion, which is how most people in ban states get ca...
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Trump doesn’t own the government – even though he acts as if Congress is not his equal in constitutional power and authority
In President Donald Trump’s public language, Congress rarely appears as a coequal branch of government. It appears as an obstacle, an audience, a pres...
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In deep-red Idaho, even Republicans break with Trump on farm labor
A statewide survey finds majorities in farm country at odds with the deportation push reshaping their workforce.
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