Background
Explainers
The rules behind the headlines, in plain English. Each guide answers the questions a story assumes you already know the answer to.
Government
The 25th Amendment, explained: how presidential succession and disability actually work
The amendment sets out four separate procedures — for succession, for filling a vice presidential vacancy, and for handling a president who is unable to serve. Here is what each section says and what it requires.
7 min read
The Electoral College, explained: how the United States actually elects a president
Voters cast ballots in their own states, and those results decide 538 electoral votes. Here is how the count is assembled, certified and challenged.
8 min read
Congress
Budget
What a government shutdown is
Why funding lapses happen, which services stop, and how the standoff usually ends.
4 min read
Budget reconciliation, explained
The procedure that lets a Senate majority pass major fiscal legislation without 60 votes, and the limits on it.
5 min read
The debt ceiling
A statutory cap on borrowing for spending Congress has already approved, and what happens as it is reached.
4 min read
The power of the purse, explained: appropriations, impoundment and who controls federal spending
Congress decides what money is spent on. A 1974 law governs what happens when a president wants to spend less. Here is the mechanism.
9 min read
Senate
Constitution
The 25th Amendment
Four sections covering succession, vacancies in the vice presidency, and temporary or contested transfers of power.
5 min read
Impeachment and removal
The House charges, the Senate tries, and the two steps have very different vote thresholds.
4 min read
Birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment, explained
The Citizenship Clause has governed who is a citizen at birth since 1868. Here is the text, the case law behind it, and where the current legal dispute sits.
8 min read
Executive
Executive orders and what they can do
Directives to the executive branch carry the force of law only within the authority a president already has.
4 min read
The Insurrection Act, explained: when a president can deploy troops inside the United States
A set of 1790s and Reconstruction-era statutes is the main exception to the law that keeps the military out of civilian law enforcement. Here is what it allows and what limits it.
8 min read
National emergencies, explained: what a declaration actually unlocks
Declaring an emergency does not create new presidential power by itself. It switches on standby authorities Congress already wrote into law. Here is how that works.
8 min read