• A Crucible for Guyana’s Evolving Democracy

    The legal saga of Azruddin and Nazar Mohamed is far more than a courtroom drama. It is a crucible for Guyana’s evolving democracy — testing the country’s institutions, its relationship with external powers, and its ability to balance justice with political pluralism. Few legal cases in Guyana’s post-independence history have had such wide political and symbolic resonance as the indictment of Azruddin Mohamed and his father Nazar Mohamed.

  • Texas AG Ken Paxton Announces Undercover Investigations of “Leftist Terror Cells”

    Paxton cited the recent attack on a Dallas immigration field office, though the shooter’s political affiliation was unclear and there was no evidence he was linked to organized “cells.”

  • James Comey’s Indictment Is a Trademark Tactic of Authoritarians

    Legal experts across the political spectrum describe the indictment of former FBI director James Comey as an unprecedented political prosecution that breaks fundamental democratic norms and mirrors tactics used by authoritarian leaders worldwide. Comey’s indictment is momentous because it tests a principle that has protected American democracy: Presidents should not direct prosecutors to charge their political enemies. When leaders can abuse the justice system to target critics and investigators, the rule of law collapses.

  • Trump’s Deployment of the National Guard to Fight Crime Blurs the Legal Distinction Between the Police and the Military

    The deployment of National Guard troops for routine crime fighting in cities such as Los Angeles and Washington, and Chicago, and the proposed deployment of those troops to Baltimore, highlights the erosion of both practical and philosophical constraints on the president and the vast federal power the president wields.

  • History is repeating itself at the FBI as Agents Resist a Director’s Political Agenda

    President Trump has installed loyalists to head the DOJ and FBI – loyalists who are determined to use the organizations they lead to advance the president’s political interests. In the past 50 years, the FBI has had only one other director as overtly – if not as unabashedly — political as Kash Patel: L. Patrick Gray, who served for a year under President Richard Nixon. Gray was held accountable after he tried to help Nixon end the FBI’s Watergate investigation. Whether Kash Patel has more staying power is unclear.

  • Trump: 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.”

  • The 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.

  • President Trump Plans to Investigate and “Disrupt” Opposition Speech

    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.

  • The President’s List of Subversive Organizations

    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.

  • Trump’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

    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.

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

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

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

    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.

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

    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.

  • Is 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.

  • On Trump’s Anti-Antifa Executive Order

    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.