Field Notes

Shorter dispatches on breaking US current events — quick hits, not deep-dives, for when a story is still moving.

Field Notes

Flock Is a Brand Name. The Cameras Are the Problem.

Denver "got rid of" its Flock cameras and replaced them with a different vendor's cameras that do the same thing. That's not a loophole — it's the whole history of how privacy law keeps losing to whatever the last court called the technology in front of it.

Field Notes

The Rule That Isn't a Rule. How 41 Senators Run the Whole Chamber.

The filibuster isn't in the Constitution, isn't a law, and technically doesn't even require anyone to talk anymore. It's a Senate custom that quietly became the reason almost nothing passes with fewer than 60 votes — and the reason reconciliation, and the Parliamentarian who polices it, matter as much as they do.

Field Notes

Nobody Votes for the Parliamentarian. Nobody's Ever Voted Her Out, Either.

One office. No election, no confirmation hearing, no fixed term — and a single rule she enforces, the Byrd Rule, has decided more of what actually becomes law than most committee chairs ever will.

Field Notes

2,899 Cameras Are Watching Tennessee's Roads. One Company Owns 86% of Them.

Volunteers have mapped at least 2,899 license plate readers across Tennessee — and 116,943 nationwide. Meanwhile, 89 American cities have thrown the cameras out. Knoxville was one of them.

Field Notes

What the Law Actually Says About Traffic Stops

What drivers are legally required to do, what the Constitution says they can refuse, and the time limits courts have put on police stops — the rulings, in plain English.