Inflation explained: why prices rise and what it means for you
The basket of goods behind the headline number, and how to read it.
Monica Cummings · September 20, 2026What 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 · August 28, 2026
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 · August 26, 2026
The Grants Pass ruling reshaped homeless encampment policy — and litigation moved to the states
One year after the Supreme Court upheld camping bans, the fight has shifted to state constitutions and city inventories of shelter beds.
Devon Clarke · August 24, 2026
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.
Monica Cummings · August 15, 2026
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 · July 21, 2026Record sealing and expungement: how a conviction actually disappears
Around 90 percent of people with records are eligible for some relief, research estimates, and only a small share ever get it — the paperwork is the barrier.
Monica Cummings · June 28, 2026Prison 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 Cummings · June 6, 2026
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.
Colin Reyes · August 12, 2026Explainers
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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 · July 25, 2026
The EEOC charge process: your discrimination claim's first 180 days
A Title VII lawsuit must pass through the agency first — filing a charge, mediation offers, investigation, and a right-to-sue letter that starts a 90-day clock.
Colin Reyes · July 3, 2026
Jury 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 Cummings · June 10, 2026
Discovery in criminal cases: what the prosecution must hand over, and when
Brady and Rule 16 define the floor, and the reforms after documented wrongful convictions — open files, timelines, sanctions — are the states' attempts to fix what the floor left broken.
Colin Reyes · May 19, 2026Society
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What qualified immunity covers, and where it stops
The doctrine shields officials from most civil rights lawsuits unless the right they violated was already "clearly established" — a standard that has grown narrower since the Supreme Court adopted it in 1982.
Aarya Kapoor · August 21, 2026
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 Kapoor · August 8, 2026How America measures hunger: the survey behind the food-budget numbers
The USDA's annual food-security survey counts households by whether they could afford enough food — and its categories, questions, and delays shape who gets fed.
Aarya Kapoor · July 16, 2026Language 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 Kapoor · June 24, 2026Rights News
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How 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 Clarke · August 19, 2026
What qualified immunity actually shields government officials from
Devon Clarke · August 17, 2026The immigration court backlog is now measured in millions of cases
Pending cases passed 3.5 million in recent counts, wait times run years, and the system's due-process problem is arithmetic before it is legal.
Devon Clarke · July 30, 2026Police accountability now runs on disclosure laws, not prosecutors
With federal oversight scaled back, the operative checks are state misconduct-record laws, civilian oversight, and the settlement data cities quietly publish.
Monica Cummings · July 7, 2026Business News
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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.
Colin Reyes · August 10, 2026
Community benefit agreements: when developers negotiate with neighborhoods
CBAs trade community support for enforceable commitments — local hiring, affordable housing, anti-displacement funds — and the enforceability question is their whole story.
Colin Reyes · August 3, 2026Ban-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 · July 12, 2026When a company goes bankrupt, what happens to its workers' money
Unpaid wages, pensions, and discrimination claims survive into bankruptcy — but the priority ladder and the retirees' committee rules decide how many cents arrive.
Colin Reyes · June 19, 2026