Politalking US 
How Redistricting Works Every 10 years, the United States carries out a census, an official count of everyone living in the country. The most recent census was in 2020, and the next is scheduled for 2030. The population numbers from the census trigger a process called reapportionment, in which the 435 seats in the U.S. … Read more
Overview This is an episode of Open to Debate, recorded live at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and released November 4, 2025. Host John Donvan moderated a formal two-against-two debate on the question: should America end birthright citizenship? Arguing yes were Horace Cooper, senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy … Read more
How the Constitution Can Be Changed The U.S. Constitution can be changed through a process called amendment, described in Article V of the Constitution itself. This process was written to be deliberately difficult. The people who wrote the Constitution wanted it to be a stable foundation for the country, not something that could shift with … Read more
What the Supreme Court Is The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States. It sits at the top of the judicial branch, one of the three branches of the federal government, alongside the legislative branch (Congress, which makes laws) and the executive branch (the president, who carries out laws). The Court has … Read more
What Happened The SAVE America Act has become one of President Donald Trump’s top legislative priorities. Although the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed the bill earlier this year, it has stalled in the Senate, where it lacks enough votes to overcome the filibuster. Rather than moving on to other legislation, Trump has repeatedly urged Congress … Read more
What Happened On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox that states may ban transgender athletes from competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams at publicly funded schools. Justice Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion, holding that the laws violate neither the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause … Read more
What Happened On June 29, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Watson v. Republican National Committee that federal law does not bar states from counting mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive afterward. The ruling upholds a Mississippi law allowing such ballots to be counted up to five business days after the … Read more
What Happened A Washington, D.C. grand jury indicted David Hearn, a 67-year-old former Olympic canoeist, on a single felony count of destruction of property on July 2. Prosecutors allege Hearn caused more than $1,000 in damage to the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 19, a felony threshold that carries up to 10 … Read more
What Happened On June 29, the Supreme Court issued two rulings on the same day, both written by Chief Justice Roberts, addressing whether Trump can fire members of independent federal agencies. In Trump v. Slaughter, the Court ruled 6-3 that Trump could fire FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, overturning the 1935 precedent Humphrey’s Executor v. United … Read more
What Happened President Trump announced on June 27 that he is nominating Lance Schroyer, a former Oklahoma state trooper, as the next director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. If confirmed, Schroyer would be the first Senate-confirmed ICE director since Sarah Saldana left the post in early 2017, ending nearly a decade of acting directors, thirteen … Read more
This is from Jubilee Media’s Middle Ground series, released in April 2026, bringing together eight participants (four per side) with opposing views on US immigration enforcement, including former Border Patrol agents and civil rights advocates. Participants argue over five connected propositions: whether ICE should be abolished, whether ICE agents are unfairly vilified, whether enforcement should … Read more
What the Electoral College Is The Electoral College is the system the United States uses to choose its president. Americans do not vote for president directly. Instead, each state holds its own popular vote, and the winner of that state’s vote usually receives all of that state’s electors, people who then cast the actual votes … Read more
