The Latest Breaking News from Naomi Schalit

I’ve been studying election integrity for 26 years, and here’s why I expect a normal election this November instead of chaos

Fear of federal interference in the 2026 midterms, from intimidation stoked by armed officials at the polls to seizure of ballots, has been growing in the United States. That’s led state and local voting officials across the country to draw up plans for scenarios requiring them to summon law enforcement…

The Conversation · Oct 13

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 · Sep 8

‘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 · Jul 1

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 · Sep 23, 2025

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 · Aug 11, 2025

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 · Jun 17, 2025

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 · Dec 13, 2024

‘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 · Nov 10, 2024

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 · Aug 29, 2024

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 · Aug 14, 2024