• DEMOCRACY WATCHTrump: American Cities Are “Training Grounds” for the U.S. Military

    President Trump told generals and admirals that “straightening out” Democratic-run cities will be a “major part” of their mission going forward. Fighting Democratic-run cities is “a war too,” Trump said. “It’s a war from within.”

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHThe Trump Administration’s Attack on First Amendment Rights Is Enabled by Fourth Amendment Shortcomings

    A couple of weeks ago, I warned that excessive limits on what constitutes a search or seizure under the Fourth Amendment endanger the freedom of association under the First Amendment. A new executive order issued by President Trump on September 26 confirms this.

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHPresident Trump Plans to Investigate and “Disrupt” Opposition Speech

    By Walter Olson

    The Executive Order President Trump signed last week envisages the use of government power to crack down on a vaguely specified mix of organizational, associational, and individual speech and action, much of which is properly seen as protected by the First Amendment.

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHThe President’s List of Subversive Organizations

    By Patrick G. Eddington

    If you think that a direct legal basis for filing a charge against someone for being a member of a disfavored group or political belief is an actual obstacle to a prosecution, you would be gravely mistaken. President Trump’s Executive Order of last week shows that the administration asserts the authority to do this, and it has thousands of armed and armored federal law enforcement agents ready and able to carry out Trump’s orders.

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHTrump’s Targeting of “Enemies” Like James Comey Echoes FBI’s Dark History of Mass Surveillance, Dirty Tricks, and Perversion of Justice Under J. Edgar Hoover

    By Betty Medsger

    As a candidate last year, Donald Trump promised retribution against his perceived enemies. As president, he is doing that. His campaign of vengeance will be helped by the FBI, the independence of which has been sacrificed by Director Kash Patel, who has, essentially, made the bureau an arm of the White House. It marks the first time since J. Edgar Hoover’s 48-year reign as FBI director that the FBI has been used to target people perceived to be political enemies.

  • ELECTION ADMINISTRATAIONTexas Counties Struggle to Process Voter Registrations Using State’s New System

    By Natalia Contreras

    State officials push back on complaints about software problems. Meanwhile, unprocessed applications are piling up.

  • SURVEILLANCEDOJ Files Suit Against Six States That Refused to Share Voter Data

    By Barbara Barrett

    The Trump administration is seeking personal data on millions of Americans., but some states refuse to hand over the information to the government. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday it is suing six states —California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania —that have refused to turn over detailed voter roll data demanded by federal attorneys earlier this year.

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHPoliticizing Federal Troops in U.S. Mirrors Use of Military in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s

    By Kristina Mani

    In his second term as president, Donald Trump has deployed U.S. military forces in rarely used roles in domestic law enforcement. As a political scientist who studies civil-military relations, I recognize the fundamental problems of militarizing domestic law enforcement, which the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits. With Trump’s continued militarization of law enforcement, the United States is entering largely uncharted waters. But in other countries, including Chile and Argentina, this is familiar territory.

  • ANTIFAIs Antifa a Terrorist Organization?

    The question of whether Antifa qualifies as a terrorist organization has been the subject of intense political, legal, and academic debate in the United States and abroad. President Trump’s 22 September designation of Antifa as a terrorist organization is problematic on legal and operational grounds.

  • ANTIFAOn Trump’s Anti-Antifa Executive Order

    By Patrick G. Eddington

    The 22 September Executive Order designating Antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization” is seriously flawed on multiple levels. The notion that an idea can be designated an organization is one. The fact that there’s no constitutional provision or statute granting any president the power to designate a domestic civil society organization a “domestic terrorist organization” is another.

  • ANTIFAArgument: Deal with Antifa Without Designating Them

    By National Review

    In an Editorial, the editors of the conservative National Review argue that “We’ve seen before what happens when there is an over-insistence by political leaders on supposed domestic political threats —you get cock-up investigations and confusing plots where it is unclear whether FBI agents and informers are investigating actual domestic terrorists, or merely seducing and entrapping people into plans mostly hatched by the agents and informers.”

  • ELECTION INTEGRIITYSome Republican States Resist DOJ Demand for Private Voter Data

    By Jonathan Shorman

    The U.S. Department of Justice asked states for copies of their full voter lists, including sensitive personal data. Critics fear Trump would use the data to target political opponents or hype the v vanishingly rare cases of noncitizen voting. These critics include several Republican secretaries of state in Red states.

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHThe Government Shouldn’t Play “Truth Police”

    By Thomas A. Berry

    There is little doubt that ABC’s decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was the result of the not-so-veiled threats by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr that the network would face FCC action unless it removed Kimmel who, Carr argued (wrongly), had implicated MAGA in the killing of Charlie Kirk. But the government should not serve as the arbiter of truth in public debate. Government coercion to censor speech is wrong no matter which party is in power. We should all be concerned when the government takes upon itself the role of policing “truth” and uses that mantle as a tool to threaten and punish disfavored speakers.

  • PERSISTENT SURVEILLANCEThe Toxic Legacy of 9/11…and How to End It

    By Patrick G. Eddington

    Restoring the Bill of Rights to its proper shape and place in our civic life would be one way to honor those killed on 9/11 and in the wars that followed.

  • ELECTIONSDOJ Is Sharing State Voter Roll Lists with Homeland Security

    By Jonathan Shorman

    All studies of the subject have conclusively shown that the number of illegal liens voting in U.S. election is vanishingly small (these studies also hasten to add that the term “vanishingly small” exaggerates the number of illegal liens trying to vote). Still, DOJ demanded states turn over the lists. Homeland Security says it will comb through for “illegal aliens.”