Congress Can Fix the Courts. It Needs to Act.
The federal judiciary is in crisis, but fixing it won’t happen by focusing on the courts alone. Congress has enormous power over the federal judiciary — from expanding the lower courts to changing the size of the Supreme Court, imposing term limits and determining which cases courts can hear. Lisa Needham makes the case for using those powers to restore a balance of power that Congress has allowed to erode.
How Congress Can Take Back Its Power Over the Courts
When Democrats retake power, fixing the federal courts has to be a top priority.
The conservatives on the United States Supreme Court are wholly in thrall to President Donald Trump and have warped the judiciary so they can grant his most anti-democratic wishes.
Fixing this requires a whole-of-government approach, a rebalancing of the separation of powers. Because we’re not just in an Article III constitutional crisis. The problem isn’t just the judiciary, and it can’t be fixed at that level alone.
Next Up in the Series: Money in Politics
Next week, we dive into money’s influence in politics and how billions of corporate dollars are wielded to sway elected officials.
Read More From the Series
What If We Treated Housing Like a Human Right?
America’s housing crisis is the product of decades of underbuilding, restrictive zoning, rising costs and policy choices. There are ways out — if we’re willing to think differently about housing.
Ryan Biller reports here.
The Student Debt Crisis Needs More Than Another Repayment Plan
As borrowers face rising payments and an increasingly chaotic loan system, experts and advocates are pushing for solutions that address the cost of college itself — from stronger grants to free college and debt cancellation.
Read the full piece from Rainesford Stauffer here.
America’s Child Care Crisis Was a Political Choice
For decades, the U.S. treated child care as a private responsibility instead of a public good. States are now testing a different future.
Read the full piece from Elliot Haspel here.
America’s Public Health System Was Too Easy to Break
Replacing Trump’s health officials won’t be enough. Rebuilding America’s public-health system means restoring scientific expertise—and creating safeguards that can survive the next administration willing to ignore it.
Read the rest from Kavin Senapathy here.
America’s Disaster Response Is Failing. Here’s How to Rebuild It.
Experts say stronger local partnerships, more investment in preparedness, and a reimagined FEMA could save lives—and billions of dollars.
Read Sarah Sloat’s reporting here.
America’s Immigration System Was Never Built to Make Sense
The debate over immigration often focuses on ICE and border enforcement. But it’s the laws that determine who can legally come, stay, and become American that make a difference—and that’s why many experts believe they need a fundamental overhaul.
Read the feature from Felipe De La Hoz here.
America’s Grocery Monopoly Problem
A wave of corporate consolidation is reshaping the grocery industry, squeezing workers, limiting competition, and giving a handful of retailers unprecedented control over what Americans pay for food.
Read the reporting from Max Burns here.
About the Series: What Would It Take to Actually Fix This Country?
Our new series looks past the churn of daily news to interrogate the systems shaping American life, and offers tangible fixes to the problems we collectively face.
Read the full introduction to the series here.