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Re-mapping American Politics

The redistricting revolution, fifty years later.

by David Stebenne via Origins on February 5, 2012

On the Death Sentence

David Garland makes a powerful argument that will persuade many readers that the death penalty is unwise and unjustified.

by John Paul Stevens via New York Review of Books on December 23, 2010

Collage of a flag, a philosopher, hands in prayer, and a Gothic building.

Learning Civics from History

Civic thought and leadership institutes will thrive if they promote strong scholarship and courses in traditional fields the mainstream academy slights.

by James Hankins via Law & Liberty on September 11, 2024

A map of Boston from 1725.

When Did the Police Become a “Machine”?

The journey of America’s police force from a non-professional night watch to a highly visible and professional force.

by Nicole Breault via The Panorama on August 13, 2024

Collage of civil rights lawyers and school segregation headlines.

In Search of the Broad Highway

Revisiting Meredith v. Fair, we get the inside story of how critical race theory was developed in the years after Brown v. Board of Education.

by Dave Tell via The Hedgehog Review on July 26, 2024

Supreme Court of the United States.

Deference and Doomposting

Ironically, Chevron deference — which the conservative Supreme Court scrapped last month — began as a conservative legal tool.

by Christopher Deutsch via Contingent on July 14, 2024

Chief Justice John Roberts attending the State of the Union.

J. Roberts et al. v. A. Lincoln

As the Supreme Court invents a law to negate all others, Chief Justice John Roberts now ranks just below Roger Taney.

by Harold Meyerson via The American Prospect on July 8, 2024

A gavel smashing a wooden house.

The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning

America is suffering from a severe housing shortage. A crucial tool may lie in the Constitution.

by Ilya Somin, Joshua Braver via The Atlantic on June 12, 2024

Image of a man distributing newspapers at a post office.

The Post Office and Privacy

We can thank the postal service for establishing the foundations of the American tradition of communications confidentiality.

by Matthew Wills, Anuj Desai via JSTOR Daily on May 19, 2024

Portrait of Creek men.

A Federal Court Has Ruled Blood Cannot Determine Tribal Citizenship. Here’s Why That Matters.

The struggle over blood and belonging in American Indian communities.

by Alaina E. Roberts via Made by History on March 9, 2024

A cartoon Trump is shooed away by a hand in a judge's robe

The Case for Disqualification

Three years later, amid another national election, the American public is still slow to understand the enormity of January 6, 2021.

by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on January 30, 2024

Black students from Alabama State College stage a mass rally on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol in 1960.

What’s Behind the Fight Over Whether Nonprofits Can Be Forced to Disclose Donors’ Names

A reminder of how tricky it is to balance protecting transparency and freedom of association.

by Helen J. Knowles-Gardner via Made by History on January 16, 2024

SECRET stamped multiples times over the United States emblem.

The Troubled History of the Espionage Act

The law, passed in a frenzy after the First World War, is a disaster. Why is it still on the books?

by Amy Davidson Sorkin via The New Yorker on December 11, 2023

"The American River Ganges," a 1871 political cartoon by Thomas Nast from Harper's Weekly, depicting Catholic priests as foreign crocodiles preying on US children, illustrating the fear behind the proposed Blaine Amendment.

After the Blaine Era

The landscape for educational freedom is finally freed of 19th century prejudices, but other federal constitutional questions remain.

by Bruno V. Manno via Law & Liberty on December 4, 2023

Jonathan Engel

As SCOTUS Examines School Prayer, Families Behind a Landmark Ruling Speak Out

The Supreme Court opened the door to challenges on school prayer, 60 years after a landmark ruling in Engel v. Vitale.

via Retro Report on October 26, 2023

Barack Obama presents Sylvia Mendez with the Medal of Freedom in 2010.

How an 8-Year-Old Hispanic Girl Paved the Way for Desegregation

Sylvia Mendez’s role in setting the stage for Brown v. Board of Education has been forgotten and overlooked.

by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on October 9, 2023

The Tri-City ValleyCats played in the Baseball Hall of Fame’s showcase game during induction weekend in 2004.

The Supreme Court May Overturn the Error That Made Major League Baseball Rich

A pair of minor league clubs are asking the court to reverse the league’s lucrative 101-year-old antitrust exemption.

by Matt Ford via The New Republic on September 21, 2023

Police with face shields in street

Why Aren’t Cops Held to Account?

Decades of Supreme Court decisions have converted qualified immunity from a commonsense rule into a powerful doctrine that deprives people injured by police misconduct of recourse.

by Linda Greenhouse via New York Review of Books on August 30, 2023

Line graph showing decline in minority enrollment at elite schools after California's Proposition 209.

Supreme Court Bans Affirmative Action: What It Means for College Admissions

Lessons on race-neutral admissions from California.

via The Wall Street Journal on June 29, 2023

Supreme Court justice swearing in FDR at inauguration.

When FDR Took On the Supreme Court

The standard narrative of Roosevelt's court-packing efforts casts them as a failure. But what if they were a success?

by John Fabian Witt via The Nation on June 27, 2023

Justice Clarence Thomas.

Clarence Thomas Wants to Demolish Indian Law

The conservative justice is on course for an originalist fight with Neil Gorsuch.

by Matt Ford via The New Republic on June 23, 2023

School buses.

Why Are Schools Still Segregated? The Broken Promise of Brown v. Board of Education

The Brown v. Board of Education ruling opened the floodgates for busing across the country, but what happened when the buses stopped rolling?

via Retro Report on June 22, 2023

Mountain with both living and dead trees.

Did Montana Violate Its Residents’ Right To a Clean Environment?

A new lawsuit builds on 50 years of history in environmental activism.

by Scott Wasserman Stern via Made by History on June 12, 2023

Signage for Hachette Book Group is displayed at BookExpo America in New York.

When You Buy a Book, You Can Loan It to Anyone. This Judge Says Libraries Can’t. Why Not?

The lawsuit against Controlled Digital Lending is about giving corporations—rather than readers, buyers, borrowers, or authors—control over content.

by Michelle M. Wu via The Nation on April 20, 2023

Three demonstrators hold proabortion signs outside the federal courthouse in Amarillo, Tex. (David Erickson/AP)

Abortion Pill Decision Reveals How the Debate Has Changed Since Dobbs

The medication abortion decision by a federal judge in Texas focused on the rights of fetuses and the interests of doctors — not the rights of women.

by Felicia Kornbluh via Made by History on April 10, 2023

The Supreme Court building.

Everything We Know about the History of Diversity Is Wrong

And historians aren't exactly helping in the Harvard case currently before the Supreme Court.

by Charles Petersen via Making History on March 19, 2023

Signs on the campus of New College of Florida in Sarasota last month.

Florida is Trying to Roll Back a Century of Gains for Academic Freedom

The state wants to severely limit what professors can say in the classroom.

by Glenn C. Altschuler, David Wippman via Made by History on February 6, 2023

The August 19, 1864 document recording Jacob Hoeflick’s release on bail twice

Uncovering Extrajudicial Black Resistance in Richmond's Civil War Court Records

Historians must read every imperfect archive with a particular perspicacity, to uncover the histories so many archives were meant to suppress or erase.

by Lois Leveen via Muster on February 1, 2023

Harold "Red" Grange, one of the biggest stars of the early NFL.

NFL Television Broadcasting and the Federal Courts

The NFL's control over entertainment.

by Jake Kobrick via Federal Judicial Center on January 24, 2023

Empty classroom.

The Neoliberal Superego of Education Policy

Institutional reform is no match for pervasive structural inequality.

by Christopher Newfield via Boston Review on January 18, 2023

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