Our Work

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has vastly expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) presence across the country, extending its reach to nearly every state and major city. In response, state and local governments are increasingly looking to location-specific protections, and to property law more broadly, to address the effects of this federal presence.

Mail voting is under unprecedented federal pressure heading into the 2026 midterm elections. From the White House to the Supreme Court to Congress, a series of developments is threatening a form of voting that tens of millions of Americans rely on—and that was relatively uncontroversial until just a few years ago. This explainer examines how mail voting became a partisan battleground, what the current federal threats mean for mail voting, and what states, election officials, and advocates can do in response.

For decades, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) limited enforcement operations at so-called “sensitive locations” like courthouses, schools, or hospitals. But during both Trump Administrations, officials rescinded those guidelines. This report discusses states and localities’ ability to adopt their own state-law policies to protect “sensitive locations” from the disruption of warrantless immigration arrests.

"Bridget Lavender, a lawyer who has researched mask bans for the University of Wisconsin Law School’s State Democracy Research Initiative, said that most case law tied to the supremacy doctrine was old and largely dated."

"'It has arguably never been harder in American history than it is today, in 2026, to sue a federal official for money damages if they violate your constitutional rights,' Harrison Stark of University of Wisconsin Law School said."

"Politicians at all levels of government have called for reforms to deescalate tensions arising from federal immigration enforcement in their states. One common proposal is banning law enforcement officers — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection officers — from wearing masks."

State and local governments are increasingly using property law to push back on ICE operations. This report unpacks the viability of these efforts, from banning new detention centers to barring officers from staging operations on city property.

As part of President Trump’s efforts to expand federal control over the country’s historically state-run election infrastructure, the U.S. Department of Justice has demanded copies of states’ complete voter registration lists, including voters’ highly sensitive data like birthdates, partial Social Security numbers, and driver’s license numbers. The Justice Department has filed 31 federal lawsuits (so far)—against 30 states plus Washington, D.C.—seeking orders compelling these jurisdictions to turn over their data. This tracker monitors the Justice Department’s lawsuits.

"States have broad power to regulate within their borders unless the U.S. Constitution bars it, but many of these laws raise novel issues that courts will have to sort out, said Harrison Stark, senior counsel with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School."

The U.S. Justice Department has demanded states' complete, unredacted vote registration lists. States have mostly declined to provide their full, unredacted voter registration lists. This report examines the questions raised by the federal government's demands about the long-established authority of states to administer elections and the scope of the federal government’s role in the voter registration process.