Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court is made up of nine justices who were each appointed by a sitting president and usually serve life terms. They take cases unsettled between lower state courts in order to provide a ruling on important decisions for the entire country, having immense political and social impacts on people and legislation for decades to come.

The Immigration Crackdown Is Coming for Public Education

PUBLISHED 4/11/2026 by

There is something especially ugly about going after children, denying them a basic education, which cuts off their path to life in a way that can’t be restored later on in their lives. But that’s what Republicans want to do.

An estimated 600,000 to 850,000 undocumented children are enrolled in K-12 education in the United States. They are not abstractions. They are kids sitting in classrooms next to American citizens, learning the lessons that will permit them to contribute to whatever society they are a part of as adults. Forcibly removing their access to education doesn’t just harm them individually, it leaves entire communities worse off.

Trump’s Attack on Birthright Citizenship Echoes a Confederate Playbook

PUBLISHED 4/3/2026 by | UPDATED 4/9/2026 at 4:25 P.M. PT

The Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara, a landmark case that seeks to fundamentally rewrite the substance and meaning of one of the most important provisions of the Constitution—birthright citizenship—by presidential fiat. 

For over 150 years, birthright citizenship has been protected by the 14th Amendment and widely recognized as one of the most important, fundamental rights found in the Constitution. 

At the core of this case is not only a challenge to birthright citizenship, but an attack on a nation that fought back against the villainy and evils of slavery and Chinese exclusion laws. It is an affront to the civil rights movement’s victory over “separate but equal” policies of the Jim Crow era—policies that sought to fasten Black people to segregationist second-class citizenship.   

Trump is writing the modern-day version of a Confederate playbook. 

I Want to Be Obsolete. Instead, I’m Afraid to Teach.

PUBLISHED 4/3/2026 by

I want to be obsolete. I want to walk into a classroom full of students excited to learn feminist histories and begin by marveling at how far we’ve come—how unthinkable it now feels that a president once demeaned women, faced dozens of credible accusations of sexual violence, and still rose to the highest office in the country. I want that version of this story to feel distant, resolved, finished.

Instead, I walk into my gender, women and sexuality studies classes scanning for signs of hostility—wondering who might be recording, who might be there to report me, who might see my teaching not as scholarship but as something to punish.

Teaching about marginalized communities, especially through a feminist, anti-racist lens, now carries real risk: of being surveilled, doxxed, harassed or silenced. Books are banned, curricula are targeted, and the very act of naming systems of power is treated as a threat.

And yet, I keep teaching. I keep showing students that what they are experiencing is not individual failure but the result of structural forces—and that those forces can be challenged. I tell them their voices matter, their rage is justified, and their histories deserve to be known.

I would rather be obsolete. But as long as these attacks persist, our work is far from done.

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court Election Is the Next Big Test in a High-Stakes Year for Democracy

PUBLISHED 4/1/2026 by

As attention builds toward the 2026 election cycle, the first major political test is already underway. Early in-person voting has begun for Wisconsin’s April 7 state Supreme Court election–a high-stakes contest that, despite its “nonpartisan” label, reflects the same ideological battles reshaping courts across the country.

The race pits two sitting Wisconsin Court of Appeals judges—Chris Taylor and Maria Lazar—against each other to fill an open seat left by conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley, who announced last August she would not seek reelection. Both candidates are women, so the April 7 result will not change one defining feature of the court: its overwhelming female majority. Women hold six of the seven seats, more than any other state supreme court in the nation (though all are white, in a state where more than one in five residents identifies as a person of color.) 

Though candidates do not run with party labels, Taylor is widely seen as the liberal-backed candidate, while Lazar, a member of the Federalist Society, aligns with conservative legal networks that have spent decades building influence in both federal and state courts.

Wisconsin is one of 23 states (and Washington D.C.) that have same-day registration, allowing you to register at the polls on April 7 when you go to cast your ballot. You can also register in advance of Election Day. The deadline for early in-person registration at your local clerk’s office is April 3 at 5 p.m. Early in person voting began on March 24 and runs through April 5. 

14 Powerful Lines From Justice Jackson’s Dissent on Conversion Therapy: ‘Like It or Not, Treatment Standards Exist in America’

PUBLISHED 3/31/2026 by

The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth, ruling the law likely violates the First Amendment—a decision advocates warn will put young people at risk.

In a rare and forceful move, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson delivered her dissent from the bench.

We’ve pulled the most powerful, incisive—and yes, spiciest—lines from her 35-page dissent. Read, share your favorite line, and help lift up a dissent that refuses to mince words about what’s at stake.

Furious, Fearless and Defiant: Our Favorite Protest Signs From No Kings 3.0

PUBLISHED 3/30/2026 by and

On Saturday, March 28, 2026, millions showed up for the latest wave of No Kings protests, drawing an estimated 8 million people across more than 3,300 events worldwide.

The flagship event was held in Minneapolis-St. Paul, the site of a controversial immigration enforcement surge resulting in the deaths of two residents, Renée Nicole Macklin Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of federal agents.

Republicans Want Tougher Mail-In Voting Rules. SCOTUS Could Deliver.

PUBLISHED 3/24/2026 by

On March 24, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Watson v. the RNC, a case challenging whether states can count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, if they were postmarked on or before Election Day. Mississippi—along with Washington, D.C., and 13 other states—currently allows this practice, which Republicans are seeking to block.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority signaled like they’re going to agree with the Republican challengers.

In advance of this Supreme Court ruling, states can send out ballots earlier, expand early in-person voting, and remove requirements that you need an excuse to vote early or absentee.

The Trump Administration Wants the Supreme Court to Permanently Close the Border to Asylum Seekers

PUBLISHED 3/23/2026 by

On Tuesday, March 24, the government will ask the Supreme Court to declare that asylum law does not apply at the border. The case—Noem v. Al Otro Lado—was brought by asylum seekers to challenge Trump’s turnback policy.

If the Supreme Court succumbs to Trump’s twisted logic, he will likely consider it carte blanche to keep the border closed permanently to asylum seekers and other people in need of protection. In other words, only people who already have permission to enter the United States could ask for protection.

As the Trump administration has shuttered virtually all other avenues to obtain protection in the United States, this effectively would violate non-refoulement and expose people seeking asylum at the southern border to danger and death.

The Noem v. Al Otro Lado case is both an effort to preserve the right to asylum and a step towards holding the administration accountable for ignoring the human cost of its border policies.

The Filibuster Is No Virtue

PUBLISHED 3/19/2026 by

Republicans have put on the Senate floor (barely, with only 51 votes) their massive voter suppression bill, inaptly named the SAVE America Act.

What will likely trip up Republicans is not the substance of the bill, but fiddling with the filibuster, which will be necessary to pass this anti-democratic monstrosity. A critical segment of the Republican Senate caucus cares about maintaining the filibuster, a tool Republicans have used repeatedly to block bills with majority support, such as reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act.