Security & Emergency

The system that marks national security information as Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret, and the background investigations that decide who may see it

The plans, laws, and secret facilities designed to keep the federal government functioning if a catastrophe kills or incapacitates its leaders

Congress's power to declare war, used formally 11 times, and the authorizations for use of military force that have replaced declarations since World War II

How a governor's request and a President's signature release federal aid after hurricanes, floods, fires, and other disasters

The financial and trade restrictions the United States imposes on foreign governments, companies, and individuals, administered mainly by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control

How a presidential declaration unlocks more than a hundred special powers, and why so many emergencies never end

How the President makes foreign policy and defense decisions through the National Security Council system of principals, deputies, and interagency committees

The 1878 law barring federal troops from civilian law enforcement, its exceptions, the National Guard's role, and the 2025 deployments to American cities

The history of military conscription in the United States, its end in 1973, and the registration system that remains in place for men ages 18 to 25

The 1807 law that lets the President deploy the military inside the United States to suppress insurrection, domestic violence, or obstruction of federal law, the main exception to the Posse Comitatus Act

The briefcase that follows the President everywhere and the system that gives the President sole authority to order the use of nuclear weapons

Who decides when the United States goes to war: Congress's power to declare it, the President's command, and the long contest between them