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Civics: every article

33 articles, newest first.

23 September 202633 pieces

CivicsHow to Actually Win a School Board or City Council RaceFind your win number, build a voter universe, knock the doors. Local races are decided by a few hundred people, and most of them can be found.
CivicsTeaching Your Kids Civics at Home Without Boring ThemThe founding documents, the projects that stick, and the field trips worth the gas money — a practical plan for raising kids who know how their country works.
CivicsHow Naturalization Works and What's on the Civics TestTen questions, six right, and an oath that actually means something. What the path to citizenship really requires, step by step.
CivicsYour State Capitol Has More Power Over You Than CongressRoughly 7,400 state legislators write the laws that actually touch your day, and most of them meet for a few months while nobody's looking.
CivicsYour Property Tax Is Set Long Before the Bill ArrivesThe number on that envelope was decided in a half-empty room in March. Here's how the math actually works and when to be in the room.
CivicsHow to Get Your Congressman to Actually Answer YouForm emails get counted. Casework gets action. The difference is knowing which office to call and what to ask for.
CivicsThe Ten Federalist Papers Worth Your TimeEighty-five essays, written fast and under a fake name, to win one state. These ten still decide arguments you'll have this year.
CivicsWhat Jury Duty Is Actually Like and Why You Should Show UpThe summons, the waiting room, voir dire, the deliberation room, and the one power the Founders handed to ordinary people instead of judges.
CivicsThe First Real Steps to Running for Your School BoardBefore the yard signs and the slogans, there's a candidate packet, a hard filing deadline and a few thousand doors. Start with the paperwork.
CivicsWhy the Founders Built a Government That Can't Move FastCongress is slow, the Senate is stubborn, and courts take years. That's not a malfunction. It's the machine working as designed.
CivicsHow to Win Your Three Minutes at a Public MeetingPublic comment is the cheapest political power in America, and most people waste it apologizing. Do this instead.
CivicsReading Your Ballot From the Bottom UpThe races nobody explains are the ones spending your property taxes. A practical method for judges, measures and the offices below the fold.
CivicsTen Amendments the Founders Refused to Do WithoutThe Constitution nearly failed ratification without them. What all ten actually say, what the courts have made of them, and how you use them.
CivicsHow to Watch Your Statehouse Like Somebody Who Gets Paid ToA state legislature can pass a law in eleven weeks while you're looking the other way. The calendar, the chair, and the two minutes that matter.
CivicsRaise a Kid Who's Actually Read the ConstitutionPocket copies, courthouse visits and a household amendment process that'll teach your kids more about self-government than a year of worksheets.
CivicsHow to Become a US Citizen and Pass the Civics TestThe five-year clock, the paperwork trap that sinks good applicants, and the 100 questions every American ought to be able to answer.
CivicsWhat It Actually Takes to Get on Your Local BallotMost people who talk about running for school board never call the election office. That call takes eleven minutes and settles the whole thing.
CivicsHow to Argue Politics With Your Neighbor and Keep HimYou're going to share a fence line with this guy for fifteen years. Here's how to hold your ground without torching the relationship.
CivicsWhat Happens When You Get a Jury Summons and Why You Should GoThe assembly room, the questions, the pay, the rules that get people in trouble, and the reason twelve strangers stand between the government and a man's freedom.
CivicsHow to Get Your Congressman to Actually Write BackMost messages to Capitol Hill get tallied, not read. A few get worked. The difference is which door you knock on and what you put in your first sentence.
CivicsTen Federalist Papers Worth Reading and What Each ArguesYou don't need all 85. Start with No. 51 tonight, and you'll understand more about Washington than most cable panels do.
CivicsYour State Legislature Runs More of Your Life Than Congress DoesThe deed to your house, your kid's graduation requirements and your property tax rate are all state and local calls. Here's how to actually work that system.
CivicsThree Minutes at the Microphone and How to Use ThemPublic comment isn't a suggestion box. It's the last unlocked door in local government, and most people walk past it.
CivicsHow to Read the Part of Your Ballot Nobody ExplainsJudges, bond questions and the county races with zero coverage decide more of your life than the name at the top. Forty minutes at the kitchen table fixes that.
CivicsReading the Declaration of Independence Line by LineAbout 1,300 words, 27 grievances, four mentions of God, and a to-do list that still has your name on it.
CivicsWhy We Have a Bill of Rights and What Each One SaysGeorge Mason asked for one at the Convention and lost 10 states to nothing. Then he took the fight to the country and won.
CivicsHow a Bill Becomes a Law, and Why Most of Them Don'tThe cartoon left out the committee chairman, the hold, the Byrd rule and about ten other quiet ways your bill dies without a vote.
CivicsHow the Electoral College Actually Works and Why It Should StayThe Constitution never uses the word "college," 270 is the only number that matters, and the best argument for keeping it isn't about small states.
CivicsWhat the Second Amendment Actually Says and How Courts Read ItTwenty-seven words, two centuries of argument, and six Supreme Court cases you should be able to name before you argue about any of it.
CivicsHow a Case Reaches the Supreme Court and Gets DecidedFour votes, a $300 fee, and a booklet-sized brief. The path from losing in a lower court to a published opinion, step by step.
CivicsWhat the Courts Have Actually Held on Religious LibertySixteen words in the First Amendment, two centuries of cases, and a set of rules you can use at work, at church and at the school board.
CivicsWhat the First Amendment Actually Protects, and What It Doesn'tForty-five words, a handful of narrow exceptions, and a lot of myths. Know the difference before you step up to the microphone.
CivicsWhat each of the seven articles of the Constitution actually doesThe whole document runs about 4,500 words and takes half an hour to read out loud. Here's the plain-English tour, article by article.