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Civil Rights
Rodney Maggay
The Texas and California Re – Districting Fight Explained
Rodney A. Maggay
Why The Birthright Citizenship Rule Is Still Valid Today And What Comes Next (Civil Rights Brief #245)
david
The Role of the Judiciary Against The Other Branches of Government – A Historical Background (Civil Rights Policy Brief #244)
Rodney Maggay
The Distinction Between Law and Policy And The Role of The Courts
Rodney Maggay
The Department of Justice Voting Section’s Shift In Priorities
Nicholas Gordon
Resistance is Not Futile: Upholding Civil Rights and Constitutional Norms to withstand Trump’s Autocratic Aims
david
The Administration Efforts to Avoid a Judicial Ruling
Rodney Maggay
A Court’s Options To Enforce Compliance With Court Orders
Rodney Maggay
The Pettiness of President Trump Targeting Law Firms For Revenge
adminusres
A Comparison of Biden and Trump’s January 20th Pardons
Elections & Politics
Inijah Quadri
Where Gerrymandering Comes From—and Where It’s Going (Elections & Politics Brief #193)
Nate Iglehart
Third Party Possibilities
Nate Iglehart
The New Wave of Progressive Politicians is Growing (Elections & Politics Brief #189)
Naja Barnes
The Democratic Push for the Release of the Epstein Files (Elections & Politics Brief #190)
Nate Iglehart
Zohran Mamdani’s Campaign Has Been A Wake-Up Call. Who Is Following His Lead? (Elections & Politics Brief #188)
david
A Hick-Lib’s Rebellion: Kyle Rable, No Kings!, & the Fight for West Texas (Elections and Politics Brief #187)
Nate Iglehart
Ranked Choice Voting is On the Rise. How does it work and why is it popular? (Elections & Politics Brief #186)
Nate Iglehart
Habeas corpus: What is it, and can it be suspended? (Elections & Politics Brief #185)
Morgan Davidson
The Growing 2025 Anti-Trump Protests: Hands Off, No Kings Day, and More
Inijah Quadri
A Primer on Political Interest Groups
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
Duped by Putin for months on end, Trump must now hold the line on Russia (Foreign Policy Brief #212)
Trump’s egregious pre-election claim that he could “end the war in a day” between Russia and Ukraine has instead resulted in Russia’s huge surge of attacks on Ukraine and an increasing number of civilian deaths. While Trump often tries to deflect his responsibility for handling this war onto past U.S. presidents, he is now in fact the commander in chief and must take action to support an ally in Ukraine, help prevent further carnage, and demonstrate American democratic mettle vis-a-vis a ruthless dictator in Putin.
Peace Prizes and Bombs: The Theater of Trump’s Nobel Pursuit (Foreign Policy Brief #211)
In the summer of 2025, President Donald Trump became the centerpiece of a surreal global spectacle: a campaign to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded Trump for supposedly brokering stability in conflict zones, and Cambodia’s deputy prime minister praised him for his role in a temporary ceasefire with Thailand. The White House eagerly embraced this narrative, touting Trump as a global peacemaker and repeatedly pointing to “six major conflicts” that he allegedly helped resolve.
South Sudan: Oil and Matches (Foreign Policy Brief #210)
South Sudan is the youngest country in the world in terms of its autonomous foundation. Once part of Sudan, it achieved semi-autonomy in 2005 after years of brutal civil war as part of its now northern neighbor. Eventually, under referendum, the people of South Sudan voted for absolute autonomy in 2011, legally breaking away from Sudan.
Technology
Technology
TikTok vs. U.S. Government: The Battle Over Data Privacy and Platform Ownership (Technology Policy Brief #153)
The clash between TikTok and the U.S. government centers on national security and data privacy concerns tied to its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. TikTok, with around 170 million American users, faces a federal mandate under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), signed April 24, 2024, requiring it to divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban effective January 19, 2025. The Supreme Court upheld PAFACA in TikTok v. Garland on January 17, 2025, finding it constitutional and not in violation of First Amendment rights.
Profits and Protests at Palantir (Technology Policy Brief #152)
Palantir Technologies’ data tracking software and Artificial Intelligence tools are playing a huge role in the ICE sweeps plaguing communities throughout the US, sparking a national day of protests and concerns over a revolving door between the company and key government agencies.
Trump’s Tech Ventures Positioned for Top Profits (Technology Policy Brief #151)
The Trump organization has dropped any pretense of avoiding conflicts of interest. Instead, it is blatantly cashing in on Trump’s presidency in every conceivable way. At the top of the list is tech, with both Trump and his wife selling digital currencies and a new Trump mobile phone on the way. An additional bonus is that Trump has a great deal of power over the agencies that oversee these industries, and Congress is doing nothing to stop him from taking advantage of it.
Environment
Environment
Old Growth Forest Policy Made at the 19th Hole
Through an Executive Order issued March 1, 2025, there is to be an expansion of American timber production that meets goals to achieve “sound forest management, reduce time to deliver timber, and decrease timber supply uncertainty.” Approximately 100 million acres, the equivalent of 60% of our national forests, are to be within earshot of a chainsaw. In so doing, the Trump administration declares this a “new era” in national forest management. Legally protected forest land and parts of old growth forest are slated be part of the expanded production.
The Growing Global Battle for Rare Earth Minerals
Where there’s oil, there’s the United States of America. It’s an old joke, fostered by a century of U.S.-backed coups and military interventions in the name of cheap access to oil reserves. But the age of oil politics may be giving way to a new age of mineral politics.
Introducing Gulf of America – from the person who gave us Trump Tower
For the last 475 years, the expanse of ocean from western Florida to southern Texas has been called the “Gulf of Mexico.” English geographer Richard Hakluyt referred to the “Gulfe of Mexico” in his work of 1589. With the stroke of a pen on February 9, 2025, the President of the United States signed Executive Order 14172 and renamed the body of water “Gulf of America.” In addition to “restoring American pride,” President Trump justified the name change by referencing territorial rights over much of the area and that those waters have “long been an integral asset to our once burgeoning Nation and has remained an indelible part of America.” Trump considers the Gulf a business asset.
Education
Steve Piazza
The Downsizing of Student Learning Assessments (Education Policy Brief #208)
Yelena Korshunov
New Trump Rule Targets The Head Start Program (Education Policy Brief #206)
Steve Piazza
Current Efforts to Change State Education Curricula (Education Policy Brief #205)
Steve Piazza
Project 2025 and Federal Influence Over K-12 Curricula (Education Policy Brief #204)
Naja Barnes
The Future of Student Loans in Trump’s Presidency (Education Policy Brief #203)
Valerie Henderson
The Trump Administration and the University Communities: Part 1, Funding Suspension
Valerie Henderson
The Trump Administration and University Communities: Part II
Valerie Henderson
Understanding What the U.S. Department of Education Did
Damian DeSola
MAGA Against College: A Fight for America’s Minds
Valerie Henderson
The Reasons We’ve Had a Department of Education
Evan Wechman
The Dangers for Schools Amid the Trump Gender War
Evan Wechman
The Uncertainty of the Student Loan Crisis in the Age of Trump
Evan Wechman
The Fallacy of School Choice
Evan Wechman
Trump and Vance Fail to Offer Solutions to School Violence
Evan Wechman
Transgender Students Need Protection from Trump’s Assault on Title IX
Health & Gender
Health & Gender
Utah, Fluoride, and the Public Water System Panic
Science is ever-evolving. When new information comes out, it is protocol to test it rigorously and check every assumption along the way. But what happens when the public takes a single new data point as gospel?
The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You: A Tribe’s Response to the Measles Outbreak
Seminole, Texas is where I graduated high school, where I met my best friends, where I played football, and where I drank my first beer. Seminole is where I learned to pick myself up by the bootstraps, that no one is better than me, and that hard work coupled with perseverance will get you far. Seminole is where I learned the value of a handshake, that a person is only as good as their word, how to overcome adversity, and that it takes a Tribe to solve our biggest problems.
The Hypocrite in Chief’s War on Women
Trump has been president for under a month, and he is already going to great lengths to restrict a woman’s right to an abortion. At first, after the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court that Trump helped assemble, it appeared that abortion would be left to the states.
Immigration
Immigration
It Is Not an Invasion: How Undocumented People Got Here, Where They Live, & Why They Stay (Immigration Policy Brief #145)
According to estimates from Pew & the American Community Survey, there are between 10.5 & 11 million undocumented people living in the United States. For perspective, that’s fewer—by about 2 million—than the population of the L.A. metro area. On the one hand, that’s a large number; on the other, it’s far from an invasion in a country of 340 million people.
Justice Delayed: The Mounting Crisis of America’s Immigration Court Backlog (Immigration Policy Brief #144)
There are over 3 million cases currently pending in U.S. immigration courts, with the trend steadily rising since 2012, according to Syracuse University’s TRAC project. These cases reflect more than just bureaucratic dysfunction—they represent a failing immigration system. The problem goes beyond inefficient government & red tape; it’s a legal & human rights crisis affecting families, asylum seekers, & entire communities.
How ICE Works (Immigration Policy Brief #144)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created in 2003 as a component of the Department of Homeland Security to enforce immigration laws inside the United States and investigate transnational crime. Twenty‑two years later, the agency employs more than 20,000 personnel across more than 400 domestic and foreign offices.
Economic Policy
Economic Policy
The Hidden Burden: How Tariffs Hurt Marginalized Communities and Lower-Income Americans (Economic Policy Brief #87)
Since his re-election in 2024, President Donald Trump has reignited a trade war strategy similar to his first term, escalating tariffs against China, Mexico, and the European Union.
Economic Crossroads: Are Tariffs Ending North American Relations? (Economic Policy Brief #86)
Since his re-election in 2024, President Donald Trump has reignited a trade war strategy similar to his first term, escalating tariffs against China, Mexico, and the European Union. These tariffs, framed as efforts to “protect American jobs,” have significantly raised the cost of imported goods such as electronics, food, clothing, and raw materials. While intended to support domestic industries, the policy has instead imposed hidden costs on American consumers—especially those from lower-income and marginalized communities.
The Prison-Industrial Complex: Profiting Off Punishment in America (Economic Policy Brief #85)
The prison-industrial complex (PIC) in the United States represents a deeply entrenched system where incarceration is commodified, intertwining the interests of government agencies and private enterprises. This nexus has transformed the U.S. criminal justice system into a profit-driven enterprise, often at the expense of marginalized communities.
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