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John Fabian Witt

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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
Shadowy photograph of two people standing in front of statue of Lincoln in Lincoln Memorial

In Jon Meacham’s Biography, Lincoln Is a Guiding Light For Our Times

The famous historian makes the claim that the demigods of American historical mythology can help us carve paths through our forbidding 21st-century wilderness.
by John Fabian Witt via Washington Post on October 24, 2022
Black and white side profile of Felix Frankfurter reading.

The Justice Who Wanted the Supreme Court to Get Out of the Way

Felix Frankfurter warned that politicians, not the courts, should make policy.
by John Fabian Witt via The New Republic on August 26, 2022
The First Hague Conference in 1899: A meeting in the Orange Hall of Huis ten Bosch palace – collections of the Imperial War Museums.

Oh, the Humanity

Yale's John Fabian Witt pens a review of Samuel Moyn's new book, Humane.
by John Fabian Witt via Just Security on September 8, 2021
Senator Joe Manchin III walks through the U.S. Capitol.
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For 100 Years, the Filibuster Has Been Used to Deny Black Rights

The most significant impact of the Senate’s super majority rules.
by John Fabian Witt, Magdalene Zier via Made by History on March 18, 2021

How the Republican Party Took Over the Supreme Court

The 50-year effort to advance a conservative legal agenda.
by John Fabian Witt via The New Republic on April 7, 2020

The Achievements, and Compromises, of Two Reconstruction-era Amendments

While they advanced African American rights, they had serious flaws, Eric Foner writes.
by John Fabian Witt via Washington Post on October 31, 2019

A National Debate Over Politics, Principles and Impeachment — in 1868

Was the impeachment of Andrew Johnson a matter of national principles? Or an affair of pragmatic politics?
by John Fabian Witt via Washington Post on May 24, 2019
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