Editorial Standards

Description first, interpretation second. We report what was decided, by whom, in what jurisdiction, on what date — then we say what we believe it means. Every piece carries a named byline. Never anonymous. Never vague.

We go to primary documents. We read the enrolled text, the implementing act, the court opinion — not the press release. Every Observatory piece links to its primary source with an exact date. Secondary sources are named when they appear.

Public, dated, in place. Significant corrections are re-headlined so the correction sees as much attention as the original error. We do not silently edit.

Tools may assist research, summarization, and copy-editing. No editorial is published without a named human author taking responsibility for it. When AI tools materially shaped a piece — beyond the kind of assist a spell-checker provides — we say so in the byline note.

iGRAIL is funded by the people who use it — through Observatory Members (subscription), Observatory Reports (premium research), and one named Patron of the Observatory per quarter. We do not run programmatic advertising. We do not present sponsored content as editorial. We do not track readers beyond aggregate cookieless analytics. The Patron is named in plain sight in the footer of every piece they underwrite, and the Patron does not see articles before they publish.

Disclosed in the byline note of any piece they touch. When a contributor has a working, advisory, or financial relationship with a party named in a piece, the relationship is named. The disclosure attaches to the piece, not to the contributor's profile.

A real email; a real human responds. Corrections, tips, concerns, complaints, suggestions for coverage: Contact us.