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Introducing a new and improved organizational chart for the United States federal government.

The United States has a legal system based on stare decisis. Stare decisis is the concept that cases should follow applicable precedent—legally similar cases that a court decided before the case at hand and must follow. Legal relevance follows from factual similarity.  Latin for “what comes before,” stare decisis not only suggests but requires that courts decide cases and interpret laws—whether common law or statutory law in codes—by following precedent. Appellate courts reverse course on precedent all the time (and often need to justify doing so), which is the luxury of being an appellate court like the U.S. Supreme Court....

Writers, lawyers, and journalists overuse the passive voice. But doing so muddies understanding, reduces clarity, and obfuscates meaning. In doing so, passive voice causes the writer to fail in his or her goal to create understanding, convey meaning, and solve problems.

Most people are familiar with First Amendment and freedom of speech in the United States. But there are many misunderstandings about how the law works and from what it protects people. So, how do the First Amendment and the freedom of speech operate?

Since time immemorial, the law has been inaccessible to normal people. Who's to blame for the law being so hard to understand and use, and what can we do to make it more accessible? Simple Legal Guides explores what wrong, explains how we can change it, and redesigns an important piece of legislation to be easier to use.