legal history — Bunk History

Book cover of "Before the Movement" by Dylan C. Penningroth

What the Conventional Narrative Gets Wrong About the Civil Rights Movement

A new book illuminates how Black Americans used property ownership, common law and other methods to assert their rights.

by Matt Delmont via Washington Post on September 26, 2023

A portrait of Dred Scott.

The Importance of Teaching Dred Scott

By limiting discussion of the infamous Supreme Court decision, law-school professors risk minimizing the role of racism in American history.

by Jeannie Suk Gerson via The New Yorker on June 8, 2021

Crowds of people surrounding the General Land Office and accompanying tents

Hail to the Pencil Pusher

American bureaucracy's long and useful history.

by Mike Konczal via Boston Review on September 21, 2015

Hideki Tojo in a courtroom testifying at the Tokyo Trial, guarded by American soldiers.

The Hypocrisies of International Justice

A recent history revisits the Tokyo trial.

by Colin Jones via The Nation on September 18, 2024

Political cartoon showing Supreme Court Justice Sutherland handing a woman worker a decision on minimum wage.

The Most Conservative Branch

Stephen Breyer criticizes recent Supreme Court decisions and argues for a more pragmatic jurisprudence.

by Jed S. Rakoff via New York Review of Books on August 29, 2024

A judge's gavel and the Capitol building, edited to look like the top of the Capitol is the other side of the gavel.

America Has Too Many Laws

An excess of restrictions has taken a very real toll on the lives of everyday Americans. Their stories must be told.

by Neil Gorsuch, Janie Nitze via The Atlantic on August 5, 2024

White men strapping a Black man into an electric chair.

Matters of Life and Death

Systemic racism and capital punishment have long been intertwined in Virginia, the South, and the nation.

by Janis Parker on July 10, 2024

Anti-death penalty protesters standing outside the Supreme Court.

The Hollowing of the Eighth Amendment

The Supreme Court’s Republican majority has been quietly rolling back a longstanding consensus over cruel and unusual punishment.

by Duncan Hosie via New York Review of Books on June 18, 2024

A First Case at Common Law

The case of Robinson and Roberts v. Wheble provides legal historians with the most thorough documentation of an eighteenth-century trademark dispute.

by Barbara Lauriat via Law & History Review on May 29, 2024

Stanford Law School.

Why the Right’s Mythical Version of the Past Dominates When It Comes to Legal “History”

They’re invested in legal education, creating an originalist industrial complex with outsize influence.

by Saul Cornell via Slate on May 14, 2024

Pro-Palestinian campus protest.

Why Colleges Don’t Know What to Do About Campus Protests

Despite frequent litigation, U.S. courts have created a blurry line that puts administrators in an impossible situation.

by Jack Hodgson via Made by History on April 29, 2024

Cover of "The Black Tax"

Tax History Matters: A Q&A with the Author of ‘The Black Tax’

The history of the property tax system and its structural defects that have led to widespread discrimination against Black Americans.

by Andrew W. Kahrl, Brakeyshia Samms via Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy on April 24, 2024

"Temple of Liberty" immigration policy cartoon

How the Federal Government Came to Control Immigration Policy and Why it Matters

The newly empowered federal state created during Reconstruction could restrict immigration much more comprehensively than any state—as Chinese laborers soon discovered.

by Kevin Kenny via Muster on April 2, 2024

Nixon signing the 26th amendment.

America’s Age-Based Laws Are Archaic

Our age-based laws have never made sense. With modern science, they make even less sense.

by Holly N. S. White via Made by History on February 28, 2024

Antonin Scalia speaking at a Federalist Society event.

How the Federalist Society Conquered the American Legal System

How the Federalist Society became the engine of the conservative legal movement—and where it might be headed next.

by Peter Shamshiri, Rhiannon Hamam, Michael Liroff, Amanda Hollis-Brusky via Balls And Strikes on February 13, 2024

Colorful abstract painting

The New Declaration of Sentiments

Four important court cases that have defined the landscape of women’s rights in the United States.

by Elizabeth L. Silver via Los Angeles Review of Books on January 23, 2024

Myisha Eatmon.

Break Every Chain

How black plaintiffs in the Jim Crow South sought justice.

by Max J. Krupnick via Harvard Magazine on January 5, 2024

A diagram of the parts of a flintlock pistol.

Bad Facts, Bad Law

In a recent Supreme Court oral argument about disarming domestic abusers, originalism itself was put to the test.

by Duncan Hosie via New York Review of Books on November 25, 2023

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Conservatives’ Favorite Legal Doctrine Crashes Into Reality

Originalism is all the rage on the right, but a gun case at the Supreme Court is exposing its absurdity—even to the conservative justices.

by Matt Ford via The New Republic on November 9, 2023

AI-generated illustration of a blue neural network, surrounded by code and data graphics, against dark background.

How Machines Came to Speak (and How to Shut Them Up)

On the intertwined history of free speech law and media technology.

by Alex Sayf Cummings via Society for U.S. Intellectual History on September 24, 2023

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas talking

How Chicago School Economists Reshaped American Justice

The 50th anniversary of a groundbreaking work.

via The Economist on September 7, 2023

Constrain the Court—Without Crippling It

Critics of the Supreme Court think it has lost its claim to legitimacy. But proposals for reforming it must strike a balance with preserving its independence.

by Laurence H. Tribe via New York Review of Books on July 27, 2023

Above view of residential areas in Richmond, Virginia.

How the Former Confederate Capital Slashed Black Voting Power, Overnight

Did Richmond violate the Voting Rights Act by adding thousands of White residents? The historic Supreme Court case foreshadowed today’s gerrymandering fights.

by Leila Barghouty via Retropolis on July 9, 2023

Richard Nixon pointing to a map of Cambodia.

The Unhappy Legal History of the War Powers Resolution

How the law became a staging ground for unrestrained war.

by Mary L. Dudziak via Modern American History on July 8, 2023

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist testifies to a House Financial Services subcommittee about minting coins in commemoration of former Chief Justice John Marshall on March 10, 2004.

There’s Unsettling New Evidence About William Rehnquist’s Views on Segregation

The Supreme Court Justice's defense of Plessy v. Ferguson in a 1993 memo continues to influence the court's interpretation of the 14th amendment.

by Dahlia Lithwick, Richard L. Hasen via Slate on June 1, 2023

Linda Brown Smith, Ethel Louise Belton Brown, Harry Briggs, Jr., and Spottswood Bolling, Jr., 1964

Brown v. Board of Education: Annotated

The 1954 Supreme Court decision, based on the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, declared that “separate but equal” has no place in education.

by Liz Tracey via JSTOR Daily on May 17, 2023

Anthony Comstock.

One of the 19th Century’s Greatest Villains is the Anti-Abortion Movement’s New Hero

Anthony Comstock, the 19th-century scourge of art and sex, is suddenly relevant again thanks to Donald Trump’s worst judge.

by Ian Millhiser via Vox on April 12, 2023

Collage of Supreme Court and 14th amendment-related images.

Reversing the Legacy of Slaughter-House

A careful examination of the Privileges or Immunities Clause shows what we lost 150 years ago.

by Ilan Wurman via Law & Liberty on April 3, 2023

Wong Kim Ark in a photograph from a federal immigration investigation case conducted under the Chinese Exclusion Acts.

Everyone Born in the United States is a U.S. Citizen. Here’s Why.

From birthright freedom to birthright citizenship.

by Amanda Frost via Made by History on March 28, 2023

Wong Kim Ark's departure statement overlayed with his portrait.

How the Fight for Birthright Citizenship Shaped the History of Asian American Families

Even after Wong Kim Ark successfully took his case to the Supreme Court 125 years ago, Asian Americans struggled to receive recognition as U.S. citizens.

by Hardeep Dhillon via Smithsonian on March 27, 2023

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