Federal Limits

Published since March 2026

Thirty-seven posts. Every week, on the record.

Monday sets the question. Wednesday walks the week. Friday counts what moved. Every post is built from enacted law, court filings, signed contracts, and the Federal Register — the same record behind the scorecard.

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37
posts published since March 2026
3
standing series — Monday, Wednesday, Friday
9
Nine Limits editions, one for each week
5
issues of THE LEDGER, counted and dated

Since July 24 every issue ends with a numbered list of sources, so a reader can go check the filing, the contract, or the rule without taking our word for it. The last six issues listed 88 of them.

This week

The three days, this past week.

One from each lane. The header card is the headline — it is what goes out on the newsletter and everywhere the post travels. Every one of them opens on Substack.

Header card: Monday, August 3, 2026 — Why Is This Still Happening? What the Limits Are For.
Monday · The Topic-Setter August 3, 2026

What the nine limits actually do: make the government use its own people and its own money, in the open, and answer for it in court afterward.

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Header card: The Week in Review — Nine Limits, Week of August 3, 2026.
Wednesday · Nine Limits August 5, 2026

Three things the public did not know about federal civil enforcement came out in ten days. Each one was forced out by somebody outside the department.

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Header card: The Ledger No. 5 — One Firm, $150 Million, August 7, 2026.
Friday · The Ledger No. 5 August 7, 2026

The children's legal-services contract lapsed on July 31. Six days later a single-source notice named one Houston firm, up to $150 million, for a narrower job than the one that ended.

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Wednesday

Nine Limits

The week's news, matched one event at a time to the nine standards we grade every state on. If a limit held that week, it says so. If one failed, it says that too.

9 editions · every Wednesday since May 27

Header card: The Week in Review — Nine Limits, Week of July 27, 2026.
Aug 5, 2026 Nine Limits: Week of August 3, 2026 Three things the public did not know came out in ten days — surfaced by an oversight visit, a records lawsuit, and a judge's $500-a-day fine. → Jul 29, 2026 Nine Limits: Week of July 27, 2026 Maine's new laws have no expiration date. A federal settlement reached its own, and the monitor it created had stopped monitoring months earlier. → Jul 22, 2026 Nine Limits: Week of July 20, 2026 A county district attorney, a federal judge, and a bystander's camera did the week's accountability work. None of them sit inside the agencies. → Jul 15, 2026 Nine Limits: Week of July 13, 2026 A written use-of-force rule exists and has since 2010. Three people died in eight days anyway, and the one pause ordered was reversed inside a day. → Jul 8, 2026 Nine Limits: Week of July 6, 2026 A phone in the right hand at the right moment is luck. A state civil-rights statute is not, which is why four states wrote one. → Jul 1, 2026 Nine Limits: Week of June 29, 2026 Federal reach moved past enforcement and into voting records — an eleventh straight court loss, and mail ballots held back over voter lists. → Jun 24, 2026 Nine Limits: Week of June 22, 2026 A chief judge quashed six grand-jury subpoenas aimed at Minnesota officials. The same week, the Supreme Court lowered the bar for excluding returning permanent residents. → Jun 17, 2026 Nine Limits: Week of June 15, 2026 A 77-year-old man was released by court order, re-detained nine days later, and released again that same evening. → May 27, 2026 First installmentNine Limits: Week of May 25, 2026 The week's news read against the nine standards, one event per standard. The format has run every Wednesday since. →

Friday

The Ledger

Numbered issues. What moved this week and what held — counted, dated, and traceable to the filing it came from.

5 issues · No. 1 opened June 26

Header card: The Ledger No. 3 — Named, Not Charged, July 24, 2026.
Aug 7, 2026 The Ledger · No. 5One Firm, $150 Million Six days after the children's legal-services contract lapsed, a single-source notice named one Houston firm for up to $150 million — and a narrower job than the one that ended. → Jul 31, 2026 The Ledger · No. 420,000 Children Left in the Cold The contract that paid lawyers for more than 20,000 unaccompanied children expired with no successor named, and a hearing was set for the following week. → Jul 24, 2026 The Ledger · No. 3Named, Not Charged A State Department report named American organizations it charged with nothing, while twelve agencies rewrote civil-rights rules with no comment period. → Jul 10, 2026 The Ledger · No. 2Forty-Nine Signatures Forty-nine new local agreements landed in a single week. All of them reached states that score zero out of eighteen. → Jun 26, 2026 The Ledger · No. 1The Limits That Let You See The three rarest protections — agent identification, public reporting, and a ban on private detention — are law in six states each. →

Monday

The Topic-Setter

One subject, taken apart. The contract, the rule, the judge, the case, the contractor — each one named, so a reader can look it up.

10 posts · the week’s opening question

Header card: Monday, July 27, 2026 — Maine Pushes Back. Three Laws, One Date.
Aug 10, 2026 Will NY Sheriffs Follow the Law? Twelve New York agencies owed the state a written answer on their 287(g) agreements by Friday. Eleven days later, state law voids the agreements outright. → Aug 3, 2026 Why Is This Still Happening? What the nine limits actually do: make the government use its own people and money, in the open, and answer for it in court afterward. → Jul 27, 2026 Maine Pushes Back Three Maine laws took effect on one date. They bind Maine's own police, schools, and jails — which is exactly why they hold. → Jul 20, 2026 The “Welfare Check” A published fee schedule pays contractors up to $22,500 to locate one child. A duty to protect turned into a duty to find. → Jul 13, 2026 Bound by What, Exactly A Memphis task force took the position that Tennessee's deadly-force law did not apply to it. The offices that would have tested that claim had been closed. → Jul 6, 2026 The Going Rate Bonuses, jail per-diems, and skip-tracing contracts all have a price. A state's own law is the one line the checkbook cannot cross. → Jun 29, 2026 Far From Any Border Florida's agricultural inspection stations now check immigration status, staffed by state officers the federal government pays but cannot command. → Jun 15, 2026 Federal Pace and Its Refusal Records can be gathered in a season and buildings can go up in one. Several states and four towns said no anyway. → Jun 9, 2026 Sheriffs Stand Up One Indiana sheriff sued his own attorney general. A New Hampshire county withdrew quietly. Neither choice outlasts the person who made it. → May 31, 2026 The Work of the March, and the Work of the Law Protest forces the question. A state law is what answers it on Monday morning. →

Outside the three days

Standalones

The deep dives, the explainers, and the holidays — including The Side Door, the first post where Federal Limits stopped watching and filed a records request of its own.

13 posts · March 2026 to today

Header card: The Second Address — America's Semiquincentennial, July 3, 2026.
Jul 17, 2026 #AbolishICE Will Not Happen Federal reform is not arriving from Washington for at least two years. The checks that outlast an administration are state statutes. → Jul 3, 2026 The Second Address A citizen lives under two governments. Whichever one is not overreaching is the address to write to — that was the design in 1776 and it still is. → Jun 23, 2026 The Side Door New Mexico closed county detention contracts by law. The contracts were rewritten to run straight from Washington to the operator instead. → Jun 1, 2026 The Oldest Limit The rule that Washington cannot commandeer a government it does not employ traces back to two Cherokee Nation cases decided in the 1830s. → May 29, 2026 Whose Car Was That? Agents on video saying they swap the plates out every day, against a federal fleet rule that says the opposite. Illinois and Chicago sued. → May 25, 2026 Memorial DayWhat They Died For The nine limits, read as the freedoms the day is actually about — and the count of how many states have written them down. → May 20, 2026 Sharper Standards — and a Model Bill to Match The nine standards were revised, and a model bill was drawn from twenty-six laws already enacted across fourteen states. → Apr 17, 2026 Cooperation Is Necessary. That’s Why It Needs Rules. The answer to readers who heard “anti-enforcement.” Written rules are what make cooperation survive a change of sheriff. → Apr 15, 2026 Both Marching and scorecards are the same job on two different days. This is the one that explains which day we took. → Apr 9, 2026 287(g): The Agreement Your County Might Have Signed What the agreement is, who signs it, how many counties are covered, and why most residents were never told. → April 2026 The 9 Standards Your State Is Graded On The original walkthrough of the grading framework. The standards were revised on May 20, so read this one as history. → March 2026 Save Gas, Protest Louder Your state capitol is forty-five minutes away. Washington is not, and your capitol is where the law gets written. → March 2026 The first postWhat Is Federal Limits — and Why Every American Should Care The scorecard, the agreement data, and a sixty-second way to reach the people who write your state's laws. →

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Three days a week, free.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday. What changed in the states, what held, and what is coming — with the sources listed so you can check them yourself.

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Published on Substack. Nonpartisan. Built from the public record.