legal history — Bunk History

Viewing 211–240 of 307 results. Go to first page

Police officer, yellow tape, and abandoned bikes and lawnchairs after the Highland Park shooting.

How Gun Violence and the Supreme Court Have Shaped Second Amendment Rights

Supreme Court rulings on gun laws highlight the struggle to balance individual rights and public safety.

via Retro Report on January 24, 2025

Home owners Loan Corporation map of Detroit.

Beyond Brown: The Failure of Desegregation in the North and America’s Lingering Racial Fault Lines

On the ongoing legal struggle for educational and racial equality across the United States.

by Michelle Adams via Literary Hub on January 15, 2025

Birthright citizenship form, with infant footprints stamped in black ink, on fire.

The Plot Against Birthright Citizenship

The incoming Trump administration wants to take away citizenship for the US-born children of undocumented immigrants. Here’s how.

by Isabela Dias via Mother Jones on November 26, 2024

Supreme Court justices William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, and Owen J. Roberts at the White House.

FDR’s Compliant Justices

The Supreme Court’s deference to FDR during World War II resulted in unjustifiable ethical breaches.

by Jed S. Rakoff via New York Review of Books on November 14, 2024

President Woodrow Wilson riding as a passenger in a two seater car with his chauffeur, George Howard.

States’ Rights or Inalienable Rights?

Some early progressives may have been advocates of states’ rights, but they misunderstood the philosophy of the American Founding.

by Samuel Postell via Law & Liberty on November 13, 2024

Congress’s Power to Investigate Crime Is More Important Than Ever

A new historical study finds that Congress’s authority to investigate crime is “indispensable” to the system of checks and balances.

by Dave Rapallo via Lawfare on November 1, 2024

Red elephant and blue donkey on the scales of justice.

The Origin of Campaign Finance Reform Troubles

While the Citizens United case created major shifts in campaign contributions and spending, an earlier decision played a bigger role in campaign finance laws.

by Ryan Reft via The Saturday Evening Post on October 17, 2024

State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill Administration Building, with a restricted entrance sign in front of its doors.

The Porous Prison

How incarcerated people have become separated from American society.

by Charlotte E. Rosen, Reiko Hillyer via Public Books on October 3, 2024

A monkey listening to a radio with headphones.

The Scopes Trial and the Two Visions of US Democracy

A new history revisits “the Trial of the Century” and its legacy in contemporary politics.

by Michael Kazin via The Nation on September 30, 2024

Political cartoon of clothed animals and Anthony Comstock bathing clothed, and cowering at underwear in a store window.

The History and Legacy of Anthony Comstock and the Comstock Laws

As the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 proposes to revive the Comstock Act, this seven-part forum explores the Act’s influence on American life.

by Lauren MacIvor Thompson, Allison K. Lange, Kimberly A. Hamlin, Nicholas L. Syrett, Cathleen D. Cahill, Magdalene Zier, Andrew Wender Cohen via SHGAPE Blog on September 24, 2024

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 political cartoon depicting Brighma Young walking in front of a group of his wives, the majority of whom are depicted as non-white.

The Sovereignty of the Latter-day Saints

Less about morality than about rights, the Mormon War of 1858 hinged on the issue of polygamy, pitting a Utah community against federal authorities.

by Katie McBride Moench via JSTOR Daily on August 28, 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

brought to you by

© Bunk History