Federal Limits
@federallimits
Nonpartisan civic tool grading all 50 states + DC on 9 due-process cooperation standards. Score your state, research the data, contact your state reps, and stand up for your rights. Our Property. Our Papers. Our People. Our Power.
The agency's own numbers: 37 internal use-of-force investigations, 18 closed, and the acting director wouldn't say if anyone was fired. The offices built to check this were dismantled or redirected instead. https://federallimits.substack.com/p/bound-by-what-exactly
A judge gave GEO Group two weeks to open its Tacoma detention facility to state health inspectors - after 10 refusals at the door. This week's win, in The Ledger: https://federallimits.substack.com/p/forty-nine-signatures
Federal law makes it nearly impossible to sue a federal agent. So states are writing their own answer: New York and Illinois now let residents sue federal officers in state court - a check written down in advance: https://federallimits.substack.com/p/nine-limits-week-of-july-6-2026
One Florida county did the math - $180 a day to hold a person, $88 back - and walked. The government countered $95, then $125, never clearing the cost. Match the number and the beds return. Here, cooperation has a price: https://federallimits.substack.com/p/the-going-rate
Two hundred fifty years on, liberty has never rested on the goodness of any one government, but on a structure that refused to trust only one. Our 250th essay: https://federallimits.substack.com/p/the-second-address
A limit written ahead of time is a wall; a lawsuit filed after is a hand held up in the dark. This week federal power reached into voting and speech - and stopped only where a state had already written the limit down. https://federallimits.substack.com/p/nine-limits-week-of-june-29-2026
Fun Fact. Before landing where we did; their was a strong push for FDR coming back to clean up.
Whether an immigration checkpoint appears on your road is, in the end, a state decision. Ten states have barred it in law; twenty-one compel cooperation. Look up where yours stands. https://federallimits.substack.com/p/far-from-any-border
These protections are rare because they are new, not impossible. A name. A record. An honest accounting. What a few states have written into law, the rest can write too. https://federallimits.substack.com/p/the-limits-that-let-you-see
Even the biggest plan gave ground: the agency began offloading 7 of 11 warehouses bought for mass detention - unwound by lawsuits, towns, and cost. Where the law was written and used, the reach stopped. https://federallimits.substack.com/p/nine-limits-week-of-june-22-2026
New Mexico barred its counties from holding people for federal immigration enforcement. The contracts didn't end - they were rewritten to route around the state, and the cost went dark. So we filed to get it back. https://federallimits.substack.com/p/the-side-door
We grade every state 0-18 on nine limits to federal power. The average is just over three; 35 of 50 states score an F. Where you live decides which lines are law - and which are just sentiment: https://federallimits.substack.com/p/nine-limits-week-of-june-15-2026
A limit on federal power only holds where someone wrote it into law - in advance. Most states have drawn very few. See which lines your state has held, and which it left open. https://federallimits.substack.com/p/federal-pace-and-its-refusal
US House passes $70 billion bill to fund ICE, Border Patrol www.reuters.com/world/us-hou... WE WON'T LET UP!
A handful of sheriffs - in states that agree on almost nothing - are refusing to jail people on a federal say-so without a warrant. A sheriff's stand lasts only as long as the sheriff. A statute makes it last. Read "Sheriffs Stand Up": https://federallimits.substack.com/p/sheriffs-stand-up
Help our fellow Americans in New Jersey! If you see this pass it on! open.substack.com/pub/federall...
A march forces the question of accountability in New Jersey. State law is how you answer it permanently. Read our latest piece on the work of the march, the work of the law, and why structural change demands an unshakeable line. Read the full article: open.substack.com/pub/federall...
You can't fine a federal agent for hiding his plates. The law shields him. But not from a judge — Illinois is in court right now to make the government follow its own rules. A line still holds, if someone holds it. https://federallimits.substack.com/p/whose-car-was-that
NINE LIMITS · WEEK OF MAY 25, 2026 A judge drew the line at the courthouse door. Agents crossed it within hours. Judicial warrants exist for exactly this. www.FederalLimits.org
They didn't die for an abstraction. They died for the idea that government power has limits. These limits run through your daily life — and most states haven't written them into law. This Memorial Day, what's left to defend: https://federallimits.substack.com/p/what-they-died-for
We updated the Nine Standards, turned them into a model bill, and rebuilt our /info hub. The full update — what changed and why: https://federallimits.substack.com/p/an-update-from-federal-limits-sharper
Texas passed a bill requiring judicial warrants for federal civil enforcement at schools and hospitals. Grounded in Printz (1997), these due-process protections ensure accountability across the 50 states. federallimits.org/texas
287(g): The Agreement Your County Might Have Signed open.substack.com/pub/federall...