On June 1, 2020, President Donald Trump suggested he would invoke the Insurrection Act to send active-duty troops into American cities to suppress nationwide protests against police violence. In a new ACS Issue Brief, Professor Harold Hongju Koh of Yale Law School, and Michael Loughlin, Yale Law School Class of 2021, explain that the Insurrection Act does not provide legal cover for President Trump’s claim that he can deploy U.S. troops to American cities over the objection of state...| ACS
September 17, 2025, marks the twentieth anniversary of Constitution Day in the U.S., a day designated to “commemorate the formation and signing on September 17, 1787, of the Constitution.” Acknowledging, let alone celebrating, Constitution Day may seem difficult to do in a year when a presidential administration, enabled by an obsequious Supreme Court, is running roughshod […] The post Now is the Moment When Your Commitment to the Ideals of the Constitution is Most Needed first appeare...| ACS
Constitution Day, observed each year on September 17th, commemorates the day in 1787 when the delegates to the Constitutional Convention gathered in Philadelphia to sign what would become the original articles of our national charter. Of course, when we celebrate the Constitution today, we celebrate not only the document signed centuries ago, but the whole Constitution, which has been amended numerous times by We the People, making our nation incrementally freer, fairer, and more inclusive. C...| ACS
Back in December 2020, as the nation unknowingly marched toward the infamous January 6th attack on the Capitol, then President Trump said, according to reporting in the book Peril, “Lawyers, I have nothing but lawyers that stop me on everything. I’m very embarrassed by my lawyers and the Justice Department. At least [Sydney Powell] is […] The post Trump Attorneys’ Ethics Violations Require State Bar Action first appeared on ACS.| ACS
Thanks to the actions of Texas Republicans, America has been plunged into a tit-for-tat redistricting faceoff that is oddly occurring in the midcycle period as politicians angle for advantage ahead of next year’s midterms. First, Texas Republicans at the urging of President Donald Trump himself have proceeded to redraw their state’s electoral map in a […] The post America’s Gerrymandering Crisis: Time for a Constructive Redistricting Framework first appeared on ACS.| ACS
This Labor Day, institutional leaders contemplating how to stand up to arbitrary power should reflect on the old IWW slogan: an injury to one is an injury to all. In other words, a collective problem calls for a collective response. Institutions should look to the labor movement, in part for organizing and advocacy strategies, but also because any coalition to defend democracy must include organized labor.| ACS
Martin E. GoldPresident Trump and members of his administration have been hurling insults at federal judges whose opinions they dislike since early in his first administration. One particular condemnation, which has been used most frequently in immigration cases, is uniquely disquieting—the accusation that judges are not adhering to “the will of the people.” Among others, the American Bar Association has strongly objected to this admonition, saying: “Judges swear oaths to follow the l...| ACS
Two cases from its recently concluded Term bring into stark relief the Supreme Court’s disrespect for both its own history and the authority of federal district courts to interpret and hold the executive accountable to the law. In Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D. (2025) and Trump v. CASA (2025), the Court demonstrated enormous and troubling deference to the Trump administration in its efforts to unilaterally impose extreme and unprecedented immigration policies. In their dissents i...| ACS
Over the past five months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) agents have arrested and deported U.S. citizens, caused car crashes during reckless pursuits, brandished weapons on unarmed children, and unnecessarily used force against elected officials. These are just a few of the egregious acts that federal law enforcement officers have committed since the Trump administration has ramped up its smash and grab deportation tactics. As an increasing number of people are injured by ...| ACS
The Trump administration, both in its first iteration and its current, has consistently shown hostility toward transgender and gender non-conforming people. During the first Trump administration, this hostility was most obvious in the revocation of the Obama administration’s decision to allow openly trans people to serve in the military. In addition to a broad anti-trans executive order issued on day one, in a new executive order issued this week, the current Trump administration is once ag...| ACS
Advocates of textualism promote it as a neutral, objective, apolitical theory of interpretation — one that is above ideology. Whenever you hear a judge describe himself or herself as a “rule of law” judge, you can bet that the judge is a textualist. A textualist supposedly respects the democratic process and does not impinge on the legislature’s role. He or she adheres to established and well-founded canons of construction in merely “interpreting” law. As Justice Gorsuch put it in...| ACS
