The hottest Federalism Substack posts right now

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Top U.S. Politics Topics

The lifeline election (part two)

Comment is Freed • 146 implied HN points • 19 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Trump is likely to try to influence the midterms because losing would weaken his presidency, but elections are run by states and the constitution limits what a president can legally do.
  2. His main options are inserting the federal government into voting, pushing laws like the SAVE America Act, or encouraging voter intimidation, yet each path is legally dubious and risky.
  3. Those tactics are more likely to backfire than succeed, potentially hurting Republican prospects and helping Democrats win Congress, which would greatly curb his power.

Management Under a Mad King: The Courtiers Who Try to Clean Up.

Breaking the News • 2667 implied HN points • 04 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. When billionaire owners prioritize profit or personal goals, they can cripple essential institutions like major newspapers through deep cuts and reorganizations.
  2. Impulsive, ill-informed orders from a national leader can threaten democratic processes and critical services—such as moves to federalize state election rules or to decertify foreign-made aircraft—forcing urgent, wide-ranging damage control.
  3. Officials and aides often respond with vague or anonymous clarifications instead of openly correcting dangerous or unconstitutional directives, which undermines transparency and leaves the public unsure who is actually governing.

The core misconception that is driving American AI policy

Marcus on AI • 11817 implied HN points • 13 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. The idea that generative AI is a winner-take-all race between the US and China is false; both countries will develop and serve similar AI products and neither will totally dominate.
  2. Companies in both places follow the same playbook, so technical leads will be brief and open-source sharing keeps long-term advantage from settling with one side.
  3. Pouring huge resources into an all-out AI race is risky; the real advantage may go to whoever avoids overextending, especially if large models prove temporary or are replaced by more efficient approaches.

A sad day for America

Marcus on AI • 11619 implied HN points • 12 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. A presidential Executive Order blocks states from making their own AI rules, which in practice leaves AI largely unregulated at the federal level.
  2. The move drew unusual bipartisan opposition — from Democrats to many right-wing Republicans — and mirrors a Senate vote that similarly failed 99–1, while big tech stood to gain.
  3. This strategy risks political and legal blowback: any AI harms are likely to be pinned on the administration, constitutional challenges are possible, and many argue the country needs a middle path between overregulation and no regulation.

Two cities under siege

The Watch • 2038 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Federal immigration and security forces are being sent into cities in a way that mirrors colonial troop occupations, and those deployments threaten constitutional protections like the Fourth Amendment.
  2. The administration has used misleading justifications, secret memos, and public praise for agents who kill or intimidate people while blocking local investigations and hiding officers' identities, eroding accountability.
  3. Huge, determined protests across multiple cities show popular resistance and restraint, and that civic pressure will be crucial to defending rights and holding the government accountable.
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Trump Didn’t Lose in Minnesota

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 1349 implied HN points • 05 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. The killings by immigration officers in Minneapolis created the gravest political crisis of Trump’s second term and shifted public opinion against his deportation strategy.
  2. The withdrawal of 700 immigration agents from Minneapolis has been portrayed as a political defeat and a win for protesters who disrupted enforcement on the ground.
  3. Despite the public setback, the administration’s deportation policies are still being advanced behind the scenes and could produce major policy gains if recent changes take hold.

The Exploitation of Legal Delay

David Friedman’s Substack • 233 implied HN points • 08 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Lawmakers can exploit delays in the court system by passing laws they expect to lose and getting some effect before the laws are struck down, sometimes repeating variants to prolong enforcement.
  2. One response is to neutralize harms after a law is overturned — refund fines, compensate those harmed, and reimburse legal costs — but invisible harms and imperfect refunds mean compensation will often be incomplete.
  3. Another response is to change incentives: make lawmakers or the state bear costs for clearly unconstitutional laws, or require faster pre‑enforcement review or a short challenge window; these reduce abuse but come with practical and fairness trade‑offs.

When Compliance Becomes A Crime

Can We Still Govern? • 254 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. A new law fixes legal sex at birth and retroactively invalidates many changed IDs, turning routine document compliance into potential criminal penalties and state tracking.
  2. This measure is part of a larger coordinated effort—including federal policy—that narrows where trans people can get supportive documents and builds administrative systems that surveil and control gendered identity across states.
  3. The law disproportionately hurts already marginalized people, making everyday tasks like work, medical care, and voting riskier, and it empowers citizens to police and sue people over restroom use, encouraging vigilantism.

The Campaign to Crush Free Speech in Minnesota

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 1581 implied HN points • 21 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Recent protests in Minneapolis show which kinds of speech the First Amendment protects and which, like true incitement, are not protected.
  2. Federal grand jury subpoenas for the governor, mayor, and other officials show authorities are treating political criticism and public statements as potential criminal incitement tied to obstruction of immigration enforcement.
  3. The episode is a warning that when officials conflate angry but lawful political speech with criminal conduct, it risks chilling public debate and undermining commitment to free speech.

A Federalism Bottleneck?

Can We Still Govern? • 242 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Immigration enforcement depends as much on local governments and private contractors as it does on federal law and funding. ICE’s day-to-day capacity is enabled by contracts, supply chains, and 287(g) agreements, not just Washington directives.
  2. States and localities can meaningfully shape or limit federal enforcement by restricting access to state property, ending jail contracts, withdrawing personnel, or banning 287(g) partnerships. Those local actions change how and where enforcement can be carried out.
  3. Congressional budgetary and statutory fixes have limits because American federalism creates operational chokepoints. That layered system gives local officials and activists real leverage to influence enforcement and hold agencies accountable.

Don't discount American democracy's resilience

Silver Bulletin • 863 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. The United States still has strong democratic resistance: courts, state and local governments, media, and large public protests regularly push back against authoritarian moves.
  2. Democracy vs. authoritarianism is not just a single score but a two-dimensional fight where both pro-democracy and pro-autocracy mobilization matter, and recent years have seen big pro-democracy mobilization alongside rising pro-authoritarian activity.
  3. Powerful political figures can win elections and make gains, but many voters reject authoritarian tactics and episodes of abuse can turn public opinion against them, giving institutions and elections a chance to limit or reverse damage.

Steelmanning Reauthorization: Way More Than You Wanted to Know I

Exasperated Infrastructures • 9 implied HN points • 19 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Federal transportation funding evolved from focusing almost entirely on highways to supporting transit and other modes, but highways still get the lion's share and STURAA kept a highway emphasis.
  2. Authority over projects shifted upward from local builders to state DOTs, making states the main gatekeepers for federal money and sometimes sidelining regional or local needs.
  3. The system grew much more complex and politically driven: the Highway Trust Fund, many discretionary programs, earmarks, and a stagnant gas tax created maintenance shortfalls and shaped how funds are allocated.

More ICE Shootings

Handwaving Freakoutery • 667 implied HN points • 27 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. The gun-rights community is split: one camp insists people can lawfully film and even protest while armed, while a practical camp of regular carriers says you must avoid confronting cops because any conflict can quickly turn deadly.
  2. These shootings are showing up as symptoms of a bigger tribal conflict between political groups, with symbolic enforcement and protests escalating toward wider unrest and possible government crackdowns.
  3. Carrying a gun changes how people approach fights and creates an obligation to de-escalate, but federal agents also displayed poor tactics and messaging, so both private carriers and authorities need to get better to prevent needless deaths.

What I think DOGE is really up to

Noahpinion • 26588 implied HN points • 10 Feb 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. DOGE is a massive operation that seems focused on reshaping the federal government rather than just cutting costs. People are worried about what it’s doing, but its main aim may be to change the mindset of government workers.
  2. The push to change the federal workforce's ideology may be influenced by the belief that it leans too far left. This could lead to a shift in how government programs function and who runs them.
  3. Understanding DOGE's real purpose is important because it's moving quickly and often in secrecy. Instead of just reacting to its actions, we should be thinking about its long-term effects on government and society.

Democracy and Moral Issues

In My Tribe • 470 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Democracy works best when people don’t treat moral questions as absolute. It lets diverse groups act together—pass laws and build institutions—without resolving every deep moral dispute.
  2. Treating contested moral views as settled and making disagreement socially or legally costly polarizes politics. When dissent becomes a moral disqualification, people get excluded instead of debated.
  3. Allowing different states to pursue different policies (federalism) can reduce conflict by letting communities live under rules they prefer. But this only helps if people are willing to tolerate neighbors with different moral choices, and rising moralized hatred undermines that tolerance.

Past the breaking point

Can We Still Govern? • 569 implied HN points • 23 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Immigration and border agencies are being used like a paramilitary force to intimidate and control politically targeted cities, and their deployments serve as training grounds for tactics that could be copied elsewhere.
  2. Quotas, rewards, and a culture that shields agents have normalized constitutional violations and abusive practices, producing wrongful raids, arrests, and violence with little real accountability.
  3. Oversight and truth are being undermined through intimidation, blocked investigations, and even doctored images, though local communities have shown resilience and solidarity in resisting the occupation.

Trump Declares a Legal War on Sanctuary Cities

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 621 implied HN points • 18 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. The Justice Department is reportedly investigating Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for allegedly conspiring to obstruct ICE.
  2. Sanctuary policies let local governments limit cooperation with federal immigration agents, and those choices are generally protected under the Constitution.
  3. The White House argues sanctuary rules create a hostile climate that endangers federal officers and is using that claim to press a legal campaign against sanctuary cities.

Sanctuary Cities Are Built on Shaky Law

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 505 implied HN points • 22 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Sanctuary policies can conflict with federal law that forbids encouraging or inducing illegal immigration, and those actions could carry criminal or civil penalties.
  2. Some state and local officials who back sanctuary practices are facing Justice Department scrutiny and legal challenges that could lead courts to strike down those policies.
  3. Supporters argue sanctuaries only limit local cooperation with federal authorities, but federal statutes may impose broader duties on states and cities that make simple noncooperation legally vulnerable.

Immigration: The Federal Solution

David Friedman’s Substack • 485 implied HN points • 25 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Federalism offers a practical path: let states choose whether to enforce immigration so some states deport while others tolerate residents, which would show the real costs and benefits of each approach.
  2. Selective non‑enforcement is legally possible and already happens (think marijuana rules and DACA), so the choice to enforce widely is political rather than strictly legal.
  3. Years of de facto non‑enforcement created millions of integrated undocumented residents, so sudden strict enforcement disrupts ordinary families and strengthens the case for changing or repealing enforcement‑heavy laws.

We Have Been Here Before

David Friedman’s Substack • 233 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. The current clash over federal enforcement echoes Prohibition-era conflicts where federal agents enforced unpopular laws and states resisted, though the legal basis and political context are different.
  2. Widespread cellphone recording and online sharing make official actions far more transparent now, which limits cover-ups and forces quicker corrections when authorities make mistakes.
  3. The large growth in federal spending and funding of state programs weakens state-level resistance and makes federalism a less effective check, while the dispute is driven largely by ideological division rather than direct costs to most voters.

Will Belgium become Europe's next hard-right government?

Gulf Stream Blues • 19 implied HN points • 18 Oct 24
🌍 World Politics Federalism
  1. Belgium is experiencing a rise in far-right politics, similar to trends in Italy and the Netherlands. This means more far-right parties could gain power in Europe.
  2. The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) has been the largest party in Belgium for years, advocating for more regional control and less federal influence. They want a system where regions manage their own taxes.
  3. Belgium's complicated political system is affecting its unity, with ongoing debates about taxation and regional independence. Many believe the country functions more like separate states instead of a united nation.

Alberta Clipper

Doomberg • 6739 implied HN points • 07 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Canada has huge oil resources known as the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, which can supply energy for over a century.
  2. There is ongoing conflict between Alberta's provincial government and the federal government over climate policies and emissions caps that could hurt Alberta's oil industry.
  3. The battle between local and federal powers in Canada is heating up, especially with approaching elections bringing more attention to these energy issues.

Office hours—register now for February dates

The Novelleist • 43 implied HN points • 13 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. February office hours are open for registration, including a session this afternoon and meetings on the next two Fridays at 1pm MT and Wednesday Feb 25 at 1pm MT.
  2. Only paid subscribers can sign up to join these sessions.
  3. The format is conversational — bring a short intro and something you're reading to kick off discussion; past topics have included revolution and secession, new technologies (like BYD), city design, and governance movements.

The Liminal Zone

KERFUFFLE • 113 implied HN points • 21 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. A "dual state" can exist where the ordinary legal system coexists with a parallel prerogative system that lets powerful actors bend or weaponize laws for political ends.
  2. That creates an invisible line: most people can live normally, but if you cross it you may face unpredictable, harsh enforcement. Examples include aggressive ICE actions and sudden, arbitrary stops or detentions.
  3. Because it’s unclear where written law ends and real practice begins, people may start self‑censoring, altering routines, or avoiding protest to stay safe.

Congress Builds a Safety Net (Part 2)

Who is Robert Malone • 7 implied HN points • 11 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Congress created OPPR as a presidentially led office to coordinate pandemic preparedness across agencies and to report regularly to Congress, giving the federal government a standing convening role without direct control of state medical practice.
  2. Constitutional and Supreme Court limits mean the federal role is meant to be preparedness and support (stockpiles, surveillance, coordination), not operational control of local medical decisions, so OPPR was designed to stay on that side of the line.
  3. OPPR delivered practical assets — coordinating mpox and H5N1 responses, mapping the countermeasure portfolio, launching the Bio‑5 supply‑chain effort, and writing a response playbook — but it was chronically underfunded, its statutorily required reports stopped, and key programs and funding were later canceled.

OSD 360: The tyranny ratchet revisited

Open Source Defense • 73 implied HN points • 15 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Trying to enforce every law perfectly would require oppressive measures, so governments always make tradeoffs about how strictly to enforce laws and those tradeoffs should be decided by the people.
  2. Political factions rush to expand authority when they’re in power, reward excesses as loyalty tests, and those gains rarely get rolled back — government power functions like a one-way ratchet.
  3. The spirit of self-reliance tied to gun ownership serves as a practical and symbolic check on mass federal enforcement and surveillance, and preserving that spirit helps prevent the normalization of invasive roundups and domestic control.

WHEN AN HONORABLE JUDGE MEETS A CORRUPT GOVERNMENT

Seymour Hersh • 30 implied HN points • 11 Feb 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Judge Jerry Blackwell found that ICE and other federal agents carried out aggressive arrests and deportations in Minneapolis without following constitutional due process, raising serious legal compliance questions.
  2. The federal raids were a political show of force in a largely Democratic, immigrant-rich city and produced mass arrests, violent clashes, and deaths among protesters.
  3. The case exposed a clash between judicial oversight and politically driven federal enforcement, revealing a constitutional tension over how far federal power can go when courts insist on legal limits.

Revenge of the Statesmen

Adam's Legal Newsletter • 539 implied HN points • 09 Mar 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Marbury v. Madison case set a precedent where judicial decisions can have questionable rationales but still deliver impactful results
  2. In the Trump v. Anderson case, the Supreme Court aimed for practical solutions, left doors open for legislative action, and made decisions that balanced unanimity with legitimacy
  3. States should have the authority to apply federal law, including constitutional law, without needing explicit permission, as highlighted by the issues faced in the Trump v. Anderson case

When Abundance Becomes Anti-Evolutionary

apxhard • 76 implied HN points • 05 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Sustained abundance flattens selection pressure. Societies then prioritize reliability, procedure, and administration over risky experimentation, which makes them anti‑evolutionary.
  2. Diffuse procedural rules become an invisible, unaccountable elite that blocks learning; federalism can preserve local experimentation but shared currency and bailouts tend to collapse failure domains back into central control.
  3. To restore evolvability you must remove procedural overhang, concentrate responsibility, and make failure personally costly for elites; real evidence of success would be falling federal obligations, permanent deletion of institutions, legally protected state divergence, and local failures that are allowed to propagate.

Was the AI executive order a mistake?

Alex's Personal Blog • 65 implied HN points • 22 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. The executive order preempting state AI rules was a temporary, unilateral move that skipped Congress and undercut the chance for a durable national standard.
  2. A bipartisan deal was within reach that would have given industry preemption plus new child safety and frontier-AI rules, but the administration’s choice to act by executive order instead of pushing for compromise killed that opportunity.
  3. The EO backfired politically by angering governors and the public and prompting states to keep passing laws, so a negotiated federal law would likely have been more stable and better for the AI industry’s long-term interests.

Minnesota Governor on ICE?

Who is Robert Malone • 25 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation in mid‑January 2026 into Governor Tim Walz and other Minnesota officials, issuing grand‑jury subpoenas to probe possible obstruction of ICE enforcement. No charges have been filed yet as investigators seek documents and testimony about intent and coordination.
  2. Leaked Signal chat screenshots and social posts allege a coordinated 'ICE Watch' network that tracked, doxxed, and directed activists to impede ICE agents, with some claims tying organizers to state figures; those links and the chats’ authenticity have not been forensically verified. Crowdsourced tracking tools like ICEBlock were reportedly used to follow agents and were later removed from app stores.
  3. The controversy is part of a wider clash between federal immigration enforcement and sanctuary‑style local policies, made hotter by fatal shootings during protests and large federal raids tied to fraud probes. Legal experts say winning obstruction charges would be difficult because prosecutors must prove corrupt intent, and many critics view the inquiry as highly politicized.

January 10, 2026

Letters from an American • 33 implied HN points • 11 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. A leaked cell-phone video meant to justify a federal agent’s actions instead showed a woman smiling and then being shot, undermining the administration’s narrative and provoking public outrage.
  2. The administration is rapidly expanding and militarizing ICE and Border Patrol—replacing leaders, recruiting thousands of new agents, and deploying heavily armed units—which raises civil‑rights and oversight concerns.
  3. The crisis has been politically weaponized against Minnesota and Somali-American communities through rhetoric, funding cuts, and restricted congressional access, sparking nationwide protests and a sharp drop in ICE’s public approval.

Am I a Democrat or a Republican?

The Novelleist • 836 implied HN points • 20 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. It's okay to mix ideas from both Democrats and Republicans. You can believe in a strong economy while also caring about worker rights and environmental issues.
  2. Labels like 'Democrat' or 'Republican' can limit how we think about solutions to problems. Focusing on what we want to achieve together can help us find common ground.
  3. Instead of being stuck in party lines, we should talk about real solutions that improve people's lives. Working together is better than arguing over which side is right.

The PREP Act: Unchecked Power, Zero Accountability, and a Path Forward

Who is Robert Malone • 11 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26
🏥 Health Politics Federalism
  1. The PREP Act granted sweeping legal immunity to manufacturers, healthcare providers, and others, blocking most lawsuits and even overriding state licensing rules, with protections extended years beyond the declared emergency.
  2. The Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision ended judicial deference to agencies, so courts must independently interpret statutes and are likely to scrutinize or reject many expansive PREP Act interpretations like state preemption or treating guidance as legal authorization.
  3. The HHS Secretary has clear authority to narrow, rescind, or end PREP Act protections by amending the declaration or letting provisions sunset, which would restore ordinary liability, state regulatory control, and individuals’ ability to seek legal redress.

A sucuri aperta o abraço

O Observador de Corcyra • 275 implied HN points • 13 Nov 23
🌍 World Politics Federalism
  1. The reform on regional development attached to the tax reform intensifies the extraction of income from society towards regional groups outlined in the 1988 Constitution.
  2. The new tax levied through the reform merges five indirect taxes, creating the largest tax of its kind globally, aiming to increase productivity and reduce tax disputes in Brazil.
  3. The approval of the reform will centralize fiscal autonomy in states, limiting their ability to adjust tax rates based on economic needs and creating additional federal transfer funds, perpetuating income extraction from more developed to less developed regions.

Drug War: Trump Takes a Step Toward Liberty

QTR’s Fringe Finance • 19 implied HN points • 03 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Reclassifying marijuana to Schedule III is a modest legal step that makes research easier and lets state-legal businesses take ordinary tax deductions, but it does not end federal criminalization.
  2. The drug war has enabled police-state tactics, rights violations, and even foreign interventions, causing widespread harm without solving the problem of drug demand.
  3. Adults should be free to make peaceful, even unwise, choices about drug use, with families and communities handling prevention and the ultimate goal being a complete end to federal drug prohibition.

AI regulation stans should fix corporatism first

Sex and the State • 13 implied HN points • 18 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Federalism
  1. Most people don't trust elected officials and believe politicians favor elites over ordinary voters, so they're skeptical the government can fairly regulate AI.
  2. Regulations often end up helping big companies because they can absorb compliance costs, so AI rules risk entrenching incumbents, killing innovation, and raising prices.
  3. Many proposed AI laws focus on problems that are minor or hard to solve and ignore bigger issues like rising energy costs, so fixing corporatism and rebuilding trust should come before broad AI regulation.