Justice

A brief scholarly overview to understand the contours of white backlashes, their historical impact, and the ways they shape the world we inherit.

In rejecting Plessy’s argument that the Jim Crow law implied Black people were inferior, the Supreme Court upheld the notion of “separate but equal.”

J. Edgar Hoover had both of them in his sights. Yet neither one was ever arrested. The untold story of how the Hall brothers beat the FBI.

The temperance movement wasn’t an example of American exceptionalism; it was a globe-spanning network of activists and politicians against economic exploitation.

The charges, while provocative, offer a framework to reckon with systemic racial injustice — past and present.

The rise of tactical gun culture among civilians reveals a new front in the U.S. battle against nativist authoritarianism.

How we wound up with the worst of both worlds: thousands of speed-related deaths, and a system of enforcement that is both ineffective and inescapable.

The idea of Asian Americans as a “model minority” has a long and complicated history.

How abortion activists responded in the wake of the 1989 Webster decision and what we can learn from their efforts.

Calls for the court to remain neutral have long been tools for denying Americans rights.

It wasn’t all young men and guns: the Black Panther Party’s programs fed more hungry kids than the state of California.

The United States confined 2,200 Latin Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. They’re still pushing for redress.

How 19th century slave traders used, and reused, the brig named Uncas.

"What the Catholic church wanted us to understand about women and anger—that we simply didn’t experience it—backfired spectacularly."

All roads lead to Larry Hammond, Justice Lewis Powell’s law clerk at the time.

With its doctrine of fairness, A Theory of Justice transformed political philosophy. But what did it leave out? 

How the self-proclaimed "First Widow" used her celebrity to influence public opinion.

Can a system built on racial violence actually deliver justice?

Pregnant and facing decades in prison, the mother of Tupac Shakur fought for her life — and triumphed — in the trial of the Panther 21.

Racial covenants made it illegal for Black people to live in white neighborhoods. Now they're illegal, but you may still have one on your home's deed.

Our country's legal history renders the teen's case familiar if not inevitable.

Though the organization’s legacy has been domesticated, its grassroots leadership embraced the global fight for freedom.

Today, some Virginians would ‘protect’ children from the kind of valuable education that I had when my dad was governor.

For the poor, who are disproportionately people of color, the criminal justice system in the United States is essentially a plea-and-probation system.

Georgia enacted the Citizen's Arrest Law in an attempt to maintain control of enslaved people.

Regulations limiting armed travel in public, particularly in populous areas, stretch back over seven centuries.

“Here we are, a group of Black lesbian feminist anti-imperialist anti-capitalists trying to do the right thing.”

The Columbus Pacesetters weren’t satisfied being an afterthought or a gimmick, so they bought their franchise and the ability to make decisions for themselves.

Lawmakers are undoing the worst parts of 1980s drug legislation, but they have forgotten its ties to immigration enforcement.

Colvin, 82, is headed to court in Montgomery, Ala., to petition for her record to be cleared.