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HISTORICAL FACTS: Naomi schalit | History Defined

Supreme Court to decide on whether Trump’s voting-by-mail rules can go into effect – but might not rule yet on whether they’re constitutional

The Trump administration’s proposal to crack down on voting by mail in federal elections – articulated in a March 2026 executive order – faces its toughest legal test so far, as the Supreme Court decides whether to allow the measure to go ahead, or maintains a lower court’s block on…

The Conversation

‘In the end the court did its job’ – a former federal judge reviews a Supreme Court term full of momentous decisions

In the Supreme Court term that began in October 2025, the justices delivered major decisions in cases ranging from voting rights to citizenship to presidential power. The Conversation’s Politics and Legal Affairs Editor, Naomi Schalit, spoke with Dickinson College President John Jones, a former federal judge, about the court’s session.

The Conversation

Why thousands of federal lawyers leaving government service matters for everyone in the justice system

More than 10,000 lawyers, many of them from the U.S. Department of Justice, have left the federal government during the second Trump administration. “Their departures show how rapidly the president has eroded the image of the federal government as the gold standard for lawyers seeking public service roles,” writes The…

The Conversation

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Why Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon prayer services challenge traditional notions of separation of church and state – but might be blessed by the Roberts Supreme Court

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is engaging in “a proselytizing Christian campaign” in his job, according to The Washington Post.

The Conversation

Peace plan presented by the US to Ukraine reflects inexperienced, unrealistic handling of a delicate situation

As Russian bombs continued to pound Ukraine, a different conflict has blown up over plans to end that almost four-year-long war. The Trump administration on Nov. 20, 2025, formally presented Ukraine with a 28-point proposal to end the war, and President Donald Trump announced the country had until Thanksgiving to…

The Conversation

Why MAGA is so concerned with Epstein − and why the files are unlikely to dent loyalty to Trump

With the latest shift by President Donald Trump on releasing the Epstein files held by the U.S. Department of Justice – he’s now for it after being against it after being for it – the MAGA base may finally get to view the documents it’s long wanted to see. On…

The Conversation

Facing a shutdown, budget negotiations are much harder because Congress has given Trump power to cut spending through ‘rescission’

Congress faces a deadline of Oct. 1 to adopt a spending measure to keep the federal government open. Various reporters will be interviewing serious people saying serious things in the basement corridors of the U.S. Capitol. There will also be political posturing, misrepresentation and either braggadocio or evasion. Politics editor…

The Conversation

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This isn’t how wars are ended − a veteran diplomat explains how Trump-Putin summit is amateurish and politically driven

A hastily arranged summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is set for Aug. 15, 2025, in Alaska, where the two leaders will discuss a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not attend, barring a last-minute change. The Conversation’s politics editor Naomi…

The Conversation

A radical proposal to abolish state government and strengthen American democracy

Get rid of states? Legal scholar Stephen Legomsky, who taught for 34 years at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, has just published a book, “Reimagining the American Union,” that proposes a radical idea: Abolish state government. The Conversation’s politics and democracy editor, Naomi Schalit – a…

The Conversation

FBI director guides the agency in confronting complex international threats, investigating federal crimes and running 55 field offices

Mention the FBI, and many older Americans will likely think of a time when the agency was run by J. Edgar Hoover, who spent much of his nearly half-century tenure at the agency harassing political dissidents and abusing his power. But as former FBI counterterrorism expert Javed Ali explains, the…

The Conversation

‘Inflation is radioactive’: Trump’s victory is part of a global populist wave of voters throwing out incumbents

Was the U.S. election the latest eruption of populism across the globe? The Conversation U.S. senior politics editor Naomi Schalit brought this question to James D. Long and Victor Menaldo, two political scientists at the University of Washington who are specialists in comparative politics. They discussed how Donald Trump’s victory…

The Conversation

Signs, props and light-up wristbands − the 2024 political conventions find a home in the Smithsonian collections

The cheering, clapping and speechifying are over. Historians from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History have returned after their trips to the 2024 political party conventions to collect materials – from balloons to banners to blinking wristbands – at each of them. For the last in a series of…

The Conversation

Historians diving for balloons and hoping for hot dish: What Smithsonian curators will be doing at the Democratic National Convention

Three political history curators from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History are heading to Chicago and the 2024 Democratic National Convention soon to collect stuff – or as the professionals call it, ephemera: everything from balloons to tickets to articles of clothing. The Smithsonian’s political campaign collection includes items…

The Conversation

‘MAGA BLACK’ hats, clear swag bags, the first Trump/Vance signs: Highlights of what the Smithsonian is archiving from the Republican convention

Political history curators from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History are at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, collecting items from clothing to signs that will help tell the story of the 2024 presidential election. Conversation U.S. politics editor Naomi Schalit interviewed them last week, before they set out…

The Conversation

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How Smithsonian curators scavenge political conventions to explain the present to the future and save everything from hats to buttons to umbrellas to soap

Thousands of Republicans, from a presidential candidate to grassroots party members, began assembling in Milwaukee on July 15, 2024, for that quadrennial political ritual, the party convention. Political history curators from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History were there, too. They’re self-described “scavengers” of the physical objects that make…

The Conversation

‘One inch from a potential civil war’ – near miss in Trump shooting is also a close call for American democracy

With an assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024, the U.S. experienced another violent episode in its increasingly polarized politics. Former President Trump, who’s about to formally become the GOP nominee for president in the 2024 election, survived the attempted assassination when, initial…

The Conversation

Defending space for free discussion, empathy and tolerance on campus is a challenge during Israel-Hamas war

College and university campuses across the U.S. have seen polarization and unrest since the Israel-Hamas war began with the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. Students and faculty have held protests and rallies, argued on social media and signed statements, some of which have increased mistrust and…

The Conversation

'I see no happy ending' − a former national security leader on the Gaza hostage situation

Hamas took more than 200 people hostage during its deadly rampage in Israeli border towns on Oct. 7, 2023. Among the hostages are children and the elderly. While four of them have been released, the fate of the rest is unknown, as Qatar serves as an intermediary in working to…

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Prigozhin revolt raised fears of Putin's toppling – and a nuclear Russia in chaos

As national security scholar Gregory F. Treverton says, the brief mutiny mounted by Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, may be over, but the dramatic events sparked by that mutiny are “still unfolding.” In this interview with The Conversation U.S. democracy editor Naomi Schalit,…

The Conversation

'If you want to die in jail, keep talking' – two national security law experts discuss the special treatment for Trump and offer him some advice

Lawyer Thomas A. Durkin has spent much of his career working in national security law, representing clients in a variety of national security and domestic terrorism matters. Joseph Ferguson was a national security prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, where Durkin was also a…

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