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In-House Counsel and Contributing Writer

Spencer Vance

Spencer Vance is a Harvard-trained lawyer and in-house counsel to a US corporation, where he works on governance, regulation and cross-border disputes. He writes for The Feature Paper on the institutions and policy fights he spends his working life inside. Views expressed here are his own and not those of his employer.

📰 287 articles published 📅 Since June 2024 🏛️ Washington, D.C.

Latest Articles

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Politics

Trump’s ICE Crackdown Threatens Republican House Majority in 2026

Aggressive immigration enforcement in competitive districts is forcing vulnerable Republican incumbents to choose between the president's base and the suburban voters who decide House control. The 2026 midterms may hinge...

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The High Table High Table

The Bear Lease: When Diplomacy Runs on FedEx

The arrival of pandas in Atlanta reveals a relationship so hollow that leasing bears counts as a concrete achievement. When great powers can only agree on charismatic megafauna, the real...

· 1221 words
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Politics

Trump’s Press Pool Seizure Signals Structural Shift in White House Media Control

The administration's takeover of press pool assignments from the White House Correspondents' Association marks an unprecedented institutional power grab that goes beyond retaliatory credential revocations. By installing partisan outlets in...

· 1068 words
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Executive Executive

Power Outages, Flooding Disrupt Northeast: Strategic Risk Implications

The nor’easter that knocked out power to 73,000 households and caused fatal flooding in the Northeast exposes critical vulnerabilities in infrastructure resilience and regulatory preparedness, threatening supply chain continuity and...

· 943 words
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Politics

Utah Campus Security Review Exposes Systemic Gaps in Protecting High-Profile Speakers

An independent review of Charlie Kirk's assassination at Utah Valley University reveals catastrophic coordination failures between campus police and private security, raising urgent questions about institutional accountability for political violence...

· 1089 words
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The High Table High Table

Precision Without Power: What a Stationary Hurricane Reveals

Hurricane Nolo's slow churn south of Hawaii exposes the widening chasm between our forensic predictive capacity and our atrophied institutional response mechanisms — a gap where climate reality outpaces governance...

· 1156 words
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AI Founder Stories

He Sold Three AI Apps for $290,000, Then Lost the Thing That Made Him Dangerous

Nico Jeannen learned to code in 2022, shipped 25 apps in two years by his own count, and sold three of them for $290,000 combined, including a voice-notes app he...

· 1444 words
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Politics

Trump’s Pocket Rescission Gambit Tests Constitutional Boundaries of the Purse

President Trump's cancellation of $810 million in congressionally approved funds via pocket rescission exploits a temporal loophole in the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, forcing a constitutional confrontation over spending authority...

· 1295 words
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The High Table High Table

The Census as Weapon: How Administrative Infrastructure Becomes Political Destiny

The Supreme Court's decision on the SAVE database isn't about voter fraud — it's about the digitization of belonging. When the state's capacity to count becomes its capacity to exclude,...

· 1066 words
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Politics

Tech Titans at Trump’s Xi Dinner Signal Shifting Battle Lines in US-China Tech War

President Trump's state dinner for Xi Jinping showcased a parade of Silicon Valley CEOs whose companies are simultaneously dependent on Chinese markets and targeted by Washington's export controls. The pageantry...

· 1174 words
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Executive Executive

Sherrill’s Succession Crisis: Governance Risk Repricing in a $800B State Economy

Governor Mikie Sherrill's demand that her handpicked lieutenant governor resign by Friday converts a personnel scandal into a live test of New Jersey's institutional credibility. For investors exposed to state...

· 1237 words
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World News

Xi’s Thucydides Trap Framework Tests Limits of Trump’s Personal Diplomacy

Chinese President Xi Jinping used his second White House state visit to propose a structured military dialogue framework explicitly designed to avoid the Thucydides Trap, signaling Beijing's growing concern over...

· 1197 words
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The High Table High Table

The Price of Kabuki: How Gas Prices Became the Only Check on Executive War

The Senate's 49-50 vote to end the Iran war reveals a constitutional order where war powers have migrated entirely to the executive, constrained only by energy markets — not law,...

· 1137 words
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Politics

Trump‑Xi Summit Reveals Rare‑Earth Gaps and Looming AI Tech War

The Trump‑Xi summit delivered modest trade concessions but left critical rare‑earth supply commitments unfulfilled and the AI and technology rivalry unresolved, setting the stage for a prolonged strategic contest. This...

· 988 words
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Executive Executive

Trump-Xi UN Summit Signals G2 Bypass of Multilateral Order

The second Trump-Xi meeting of 2026 reveals a structural shift toward bilateral great-power management that sidelines UN frameworks. Executives must recalibrate regulatory exposure and supply-chain assumptions for a world where...

· 1145 words
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Technology

Washington’s Algorithm Fight: Why the U.S. Is Policing Australia’s Internet Laws

The Trump administration's rebuke of Australia's proposed algorithm opt-out law signals that Washington now treats foreign tech regulation as a trade and sovereignty issue, not a consumer policy debate. The...

· 997 words
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Politics

Trump’s UN Confrontation With CNN Reveals Strategy to Redefine Press Access as Executive Privilege

President Trump's public scolding of CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the United Nations exposes a deliberate strategy to treat White House press access as a revocable privilege rather than a constitutional...

· 1071 words
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Politics

Trump TV and the Dismantling of the White House Press Corps

The White House launch of a 24/7 YouTube channel coincides with the exclusion of major news organizations from presidential coverage, marking a structural shift in how the executive branch controls...

· 1055 words
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Executive Executive

MIT Dethrones Princeton: Ranking Methodology Shift Signals STEM Premium in Higher Ed Capital Markets

U.S. News' introduction of 'earnings by major' as a ranking factor vaulted MIT past Princeton after 15 years, revealing how outcome-based metrics are rewriting institutional capital allocation. The shift exposes...

· 1082 words
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Climate & Energy

California’s Preemptive Emergency: When Climate Forecasting Meets Political Calculation

Governor Newsom's statewide emergency declaration three months before winter reflects a fundamental shift in how states manage climate risk — moving from reactive response to anticipatory governance. The move also...

· 1249 words

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