• 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.

  • Argument: Deal with Antifa Without Designating Them

    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.”

  • Some Republican States Resist DOJ Demand for Private Voter Data

    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.

  • The Government Shouldn’t Play “Truth Police”

    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.

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

    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.

  • DOJ Is Sharing State Voter Roll Lists with Homeland Security

    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.”

  • States Rush to Pass New Political Maps in Gerrymandering Blitz

    States are gearing up to deliver more votes for their favored political parties in a rare, mid-decade overhaul of voting maps that threatens to frustrate voters ahead of the 2026 midterms.

  • Influencers, Multipliers, and the Structure of Polarization: How Political Narratives Circulate on Twitter/X

    A recent study provides a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms driving polarization and issue alignment on Twitter/X and reveals how political polarization is reinforced and structured by two distinct types of highly active users: influencers and multipliers.

  • The President Should Not Have a License to Kill

    The administration claims that the “war” on drugs justifies extrajudicial killing. But redefining civilian drug criminals as “combatants” gives away the reality: the government just militarized what was a low-level criminal law enforcement incident outside the United States. Once we consider the victims’ alleged illegal actions, we can see that the government committed the most egregious crime here.

  • Brazil’s Bolsonaro May Soon Join Ranks of Failed Coup Plotters Held to Account − Hampering the Chance of Any Political Comeback

    Brazil’s Supreme Court is expected to deliver a verdict by Sept. 12 over charges that the former president and key aides plotted to overturn Bolsonaro’s 2022 election defeat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Prosecutors allege that Bolsonaro and others discussed a scheme to assassinate Lula and incited a riot on Jan. 8, 2023, in hopes that Brazil’s military would intervene and return Bolsonaro to power.

  • Judge Warns of “National Police Force” in Ruling Trump Broke the Law Sending Guard to LA

    President Donald Trump’s move to send National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to quell immigration protests in Los Angeles this summer violated a federal law against military members conducting domestic law enforcement, a federal judge in California ruled Tuesday.

  • Governors Split Over Mobilizing National Guard as Trump Seeks More Troops

    Republican governors want National Guard members to help ICE, in addition to deploying to Washington.

  • She Pushed to Overturn Trump’s Loss in the 2020 Election. Now She’ll Help Oversee U.S. Election Security.

    Heather Honey has been appointed to a senior position in the Department of Homeland Security. State election officials and voting experts are concerned.