diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/components/ArticleCard.svelte b/frontend/src/lib/components/ArticleCard.svelte
index 19e71df..aac9de6 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/components/ArticleCard.svelte
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/components/ArticleCard.svelte
@@ -108,7 +108,8 @@
      the zone. (The hero is its own layout and opts out.) */
   .tile .tags {
     align-items: center; align-content: center;
-    min-height: 48px; padding-bottom: 11px; margin-bottom: 2px;
+    min-height: 54px;   /* fully contains two rows of pills, so every card's
+                           tag zone is the same height regardless of pill count */
     border-bottom: 1px solid var(--line);
   }
   /* Source on its own line below the tags, left-justified, for uniformity. */