Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

Laken Riley Act

Two questions: does mandatory federal detention of noncitizens arrested for (not convicted of) theft-related crimes satisfy Fifth Amendment due process — and can Congress hand states standing to sue the federal government over immigration enforcement decisions, inverting the usual rule that immigration is exclusively federal?

Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act

Does Congress's Fourteenth Amendment enforcement power (Section 5) plus its spending power authorize a federal commission to study — and propose — reparations for slavery and its successor regimes, and would any resulting race-conscious remedy survive modern equal-protection scrutiny?

TAKE IT DOWN Act

Can Congress criminalize publishing nonconsensual intimate images — including AI-generated deepfakes — and require platforms to remove them within 48 hours of notice, without the takedown machinery sweeping in protected speech (overbreadth) or operating as a prior restraint?

John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2025

After Shelby County v. Holder (2013) struck the Voting Rights Act's coverage formula as exceeding Congress's power over 'equally sovereign' states, can Congress revive federal preclearance with an updated formula based on recent violations — or does any geographic trigger now fail the test Shelby announced?

Health and Location Data Protection Act of 2026

The Constitution's civil-liberties guarantees run against the government — the state-action doctrine — so when private data brokers sell location traces revealing visits to clinics, churches, or addiction meetings, no amendment applies; and under the third-party doctrine, even police can often buy what they could not subpoena. Senator Warren's bill (introduced July 13, 2026, three cosponsors, in Commerce) would ban brokers from selling health and location data outright, making Congress, not the courts, the source of the protection.

Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2025

If McDonald v. Chicago makes armed self-defense a fundamental right nationwide, may Congress require every state to honor every other state's concealed-carry permits — including permitless-carry states' standards — inside New York City and Los Angeles? And under which power? The commerce rationale must survive the very limits United States v. Lopez imposed on federal gun legislation, producing a rare alignment where each coalition argues the other side's usual federalism position.

PRESS Act

Branzburg v. Hayes (1972) held that the First Amendment gives journalists no privilege to refuse grand-jury questions about sources. Forty-nine states built shield laws in response; federal law never did — so federal prosecutors of both parties have subpoenaed reporters' records for decades. The PRESS Act would create the missing federal privilege by statute, forcing Congress to answer the question the Court punted: who counts as a journalist, and when does national security override the shield?