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A ‘Wary Faith’ in the Courts
A groundbreaking new book demonstrates that even during the days of slavery, African Americans knew a lot more about legal principles than has been imagined.
by
Eric Foner
via
New York Review of Books
on
March 14, 2024
partner
Discarding Legal Precedent to Control Women's Reproductive Rights is Rooted in Colonial Slavery
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito made reference to the legal opinions of English jurist Henry de Bracton, foreshadowing the court overturning Roe v. Wade.
by
Clyde W. Ford
via
HNN
on
June 5, 2022
Inventing Freedom
Using manumission to disentangle blackness and enslavement in Cuba, Louisiana, and Virginia.
by
Alejandro de la Fuente
,
Ariela Gross
via
Lapham’s Quarterly
on
January 21, 2020
The Radical Past and Future of Debt Resistance
The deep roots of debt relief activism in the United States.
by
Astra Taylor
via
The Nation
on
September 25, 2024
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
The Supreme Court Fools Itself
The Roberts Court has made the current crisis of American democracy perpetual.
by
Adam Serwer
via
The Atlantic
on
July 24, 2024
Good Deeds Unpunished
American law should protect the right of individuals to engage in charitable acts.
by
Mark David Hall
,
Adam J. Macleod
via
Law & Liberty
on
July 22, 2024
‘The Dred Scott of Our Time’
The Supreme Court has invested the presidency with quasi-monarchial powers, repudiating the foundational principle of the rule of law.
by
Sean Wilentz
via
New York Review of Books
on
July 4, 2024
The Supreme Court Turns the President Into a King
The conservative justices have ignored history altogether and created a shocking new precedent: The president is above the law.
by
Holly Brewer
via
The New Republic
on
July 1, 2024
Can the Republic Survive Corrupt Presidents?
The Founders knew that executive power was vital but dangerous in any republic.
by
Richard Samuelson
via
Law & Liberty
on
June 27, 2024
Markets and the Law
Neoliberalism isn’t just a set of economic precepts—it’s also an architecture of laws passed to reinforce those precepts. Those laws must be changed.
by
Amy Kapczynski
via
Democracy Journal
on
June 24, 2024
Is the United States Too Devoted to the Constitution?
A new book argues that worship of the Constitution has distorted our politics.
by
John Fabian Witt
via
The New Republic
on
June 24, 2024
The Biggest Myth About the 1994 Crime Bill Still Haunts Joe Biden. It Shouldn’t.
The law is routinely blamed for a very real problem it had nothing to do with.
by
John Pfaff
via
Slate
on
June 20, 2024
Aziz Rana Wants Us to Stop Worshipping the Constitution
A conversation with the legal scholar on why it is unusual that the Constitution is core to American national identity.
by
Aziz Rana
,
Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins
via
The Nation
on
June 3, 2024
The Racist Origins of America’s Broken Immigration System
How a little-known, century-old law perpetuated the odious notion that certain types of immigrants degrade our nation’s character.
by
Felipe De La Hoz
via
The New Republic
on
May 1, 2024
On Garrison, Douglass, and American Colonialism
Examining how William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass interpreted the nation's relationship with the Constitution.
by
Maggie Blackhawk
via
LPE Project
on
April 22, 2024
The Paradox of the American Labor Movement
It’s a great time to be in a union—but a terrible time to try to start a new one.
by
Michael Podhorzer
via
The Atlantic
on
April 18, 2024
We Are Already Defying the Supreme Court
The risks of calling on politicians to push back against the court must be weighed against the present reality of a malign judicial dictatorship.
by
Samuel Moyn
,
Ryan D. Doerfler
via
Dissent
on
April 16, 2024
partner
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
What American Divorces Tell Us About American Marriages
On the inseparable histories of matrimony and disunion in the United States.
by
Lyz Lenz
via
Literary Hub
on
February 22, 2024
How the ADL’s Anti-Palestinian Advocacy Helped Shape U.S. Terror Laws
Long before 9/11, Zionist groups like the Anti-Defamation League lobbied for counterterror legislation that singled out Palestinians.
by
Alice Speri
via
The Intercept
on
February 21, 2024
partner
Debt Has Long Been a Tool for Limiting Black Freedom
In pre-Civil War Richmond, Black people were forced to literally pay for the mechanisms of white supremacy.
by
Amanda White Gibson
via
Made by History
on
February 19, 2024
The Architect of Our Divided Supreme Court
100 years ago, Chief Justice William Howard Taft made the Court more efficient and more powerful, marking a turning point whose effects are still being felt.
by
Jill Lepore
via
The New Yorker
on
January 22, 2024
A Murderous Gravestone Grudge Carved a New Law Into Stone
When murder won’t rest in peace.
by
Max Longley
via
Atlas Obscura
on
January 11, 2024
partner
Government Shutdowns Were Never Necessary Anyway
Government shutdowns only became possible in 1980, when the Attorney General offered a new interpretation of an 1870 law.
by
M. A. Davis
via
Made by History
on
November 16, 2023
The Hidden Story of Black History and Black Lives Before the Civil Rights Movement
On upending the accepted narrative of the movement.
by
Dylan C. Penningroth
via
Literary Hub
on
October 4, 2023
The Quiet Revolution of the Sabbath
Requiring rest, rather than work, is still a radical idea.
by
Casey N. Cep
via
The New Yorker
on
September 30, 2023
Conspicuous Destruction
Two books argue that private equity created an economic order in which getting rich quickly preempts other values, undermining companies and evading the law.
by
Kim Phillips-Fein
via
New York Review of Books
on
September 28, 2023
The 150-Year-Old Comstock Act Could Transform the Abortion Debate
Once considered a relic of moral panics past, the 1873 law criminalized sending "obscene, lewd or lascivious" materials through the mail.
by
Ellen Wexler
via
Smithsonian
on
June 15, 2023
Jefferson’s Secret Plan to Whiten Virginia
Jefferson’s system depended on shoring up the bulwarks of race and basing the law on a theory of government that withdrew protection from unfavored groups.
by
Timothy Messer-Kruse
via
Commonplace
on
April 19, 2023
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