What qualified immunity actually covers — and what it doesn't
The doctrine shields officials from damages lawsuits unless they violated "clearly established" law — a test that has frustrated courts across the political spectrum.
Colin Reyes
Wage theft: how workers actually recover unpaid pay
Employers steal billions from paychecks annually — more than all street robberies combined, per the standard estimate — and recovery runs through three channels with different clocks.
Monica Cummings
Clemency explained: how pardon decisions are actually made
Thousands of petitions reach governors' and the president's desks, nearly all decided — or ignored — through advisory processes no court can review.
Monica Cummings
How cash bail actually works — and who stays in jail before trial
Money release is the default in most US counties, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics counts who that leaves behind.
Monica Cummings
Treatment courts, from veterans dockets to drug courts, explained
More than 4,000 specialty courts now reroute defendants into treatment and supervision — with outcomes that beat incarceration on the metrics researchers trust.
Aarya KapoorAnalysis & Opinion
What qualified immunity actually shields government officials from
How federal compassionate release works, and what the Supreme Court just narrowed
A judge can shorten a federal sentence already being served, but only through a specific statutory door. Two rulings on May 28, 2026 moved its frame.
FCC delays promised drop in prison phone call rates
A 2024 order meant to roughly halve prison and jail calling costs has been replaced with higher interim rate caps, after sheriffs, telecom vendors and Republican attorneys general pushed back on the original rules.
How the Labor Department recovers stolen wages, and how much workers get
Federal wage-theft enforcement hit a five-year high in 2025, but the recovery process, and its limits, are less understood than the headline number.
Justice
More in Justice →
Record sealing and expungement: how a conviction actually disappears
Monica CummingsPrison gerrymandering: where incarcerated people are counted decides who votes
More than a dozen states now reallocate prisoners to their home addresses for redistricting, unwinding a count that inflated rural districts with people who cannot vote there.
Monica CummingsExplainers
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The EEOC charge process: your discrimination claim's first 180 days
Colin ReyesJury selection and Batson challenges: how the jury gets its shape
Voir dire, peremptory strikes, and the Batson rule against striking jurors by race define who judges the case — and the data shows the rule is honored unevenly.
Monica CummingsSociety
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What qualified immunity covers, and where it stops
Aarya KapoorLanguage access in courts: a right that depends on interpretation
Federal civil-rights law requires courts to serve people with limited English, and the gap between the mandate and the interpreter supply is documented case by case.
Aarya KapoorRights News
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The Grants Pass ruling reshaped homeless encampment policy — and litigation moved to the states
Devon ClarkeHow the FCC sets price caps on prison phone calls
A 2023 law told federal regulators to make prison and jail calling rates "just and reasonable." The caps they've set have moved twice in two years — down sharply in 2024, then back up in 2025.
Devon ClarkeBusiness News
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Community benefit agreements: when developers negotiate with neighborhoods
Colin ReyesBan-the-box laws: what employers can ask, and when
Most states and many cities now delay criminal-history questions until after a conditional offer — and the fair-chance rules that replaced the checkbox come with process requirements.
Colin Reyes