The American flag as two speech balloons.

The Ideal That Underlies the Declaration of Independence

Restoring stability to American politics will require reviving an age-old concept: common ground.
Abortion Action Week flyer.

After “Abortion”: A 1966 Book and the World That It Made

Before the book’s publication, no one, it seemed, wanted to talk about abortion publicly. But something changed with when the book finally arrived in 1966.
A troop of Japanese American Girl Scouts in an internment camp.
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Complicit in the Business of Indoctrination and Incarceration

By 1943, the Girl Scouts had a presence in every Japanese American internment camp.
Two National Guard soldiers in Montgomery, Alabama.

Whose Streets? Trump’s Federalized National Guard and the Long Arc of White Supremacy

Federal agents have long harassed immigrants and Black and brown people in cities, but something dangerous is changing behind the scenes.
A mother and son at a protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Law Professors Aiding Trump’s War on Birthright Citizenship

A plain reading of the Constitution refutes Trump’s claims about the Fourteenth Amendment, but a new legal movement is doing what it can to muddy the waters.
In a cotton field at night, a Black man scouts with a lantern, while a black woman passes a book to two fleeing men.

The Black People Who Fled Slavery Had a Lot to Teach Their Northern Allies

Black-led vigilance committees not only protected and aided fugitives but also learned from the formerly enslaved as they built a movement pedagogy together.
ICE officer on a bus full of detainees.
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Habeas Corpus and the Limits of Presidential Power: The Right to a Day in Court

Habeas corpus, the right to challenge unlawful detention, is at the center of a debate over presidential power.
Female prisoners at Parchman sewing.

From Chain Gangs to the “Modern” Southern Prison

Those who sought to modernize and reform prisons have expanded them in the process and more permanently entrenched a racialized carceral state.
Leo Frank.

Justice Miscarried: The Trial, Conviction, and Murder of Leo Frank

Leo Frank’s trial, death sentence, eventual commutation, and finally his lynching all show the nation’s problematic history with anti-Semitism.
Men and women leaving a church in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1936.

The Trial of the Century

On the hundredth anniversary of Tennessee v. Scopes.
A drawing of the burning of Norfolk.

In January 1776, Norfolk Was Set Ablaze, Galvanizing the Revolution. But Who Really Lit the Match?

Blaming the British for the destruction helped persuade some colonists to back the fight for independence. But the source of the inferno was not what it seemed.
A man stealing a painting, with images of maps, fingerprints, rings, and a building.

The Hardest-Working Art Thief in History

The 'Social Register' was a who’s who of America’s rich and powerful. It was also the perfect hit list.
Illustration showing Black education, skilled work, and military service, as results of the 15th amendment.
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The Fifteenth Amendment: Annotated

The brevity of the Fifteenth Amendment of the US Constitution belies its impact on American voting rights.
Anthony Kennedy and the Citizens United ruling.

This Former Supreme Court Justice Is Trying to Salvage His Legacy. It’s Too Late.

The story of how corruption became legal in America isn't just about memos, movements, and legal strategies.
Jane Fonda at the 2025 SAG Awards.

History’s Lessons for the Second Committee for the First Amendment

Jane Fonda is reviving the Hollywood advocacy group to meet the high-stakes challenges to free expression in the Trump era.
John Lewis.

You Must Do Something

Tracing John Lewis’s lifelong fight for democracy and inclusion.
Coyote covering his eyes, as depicted on the cover of Julian Brave Noisecat's book "We Survived the Night."

Through the Eyes of Little Crow

Little Crow was one of the leaders of the Dakota Uprising of 1862, a conflict that began, as so many Indian wars did, because treaty rights were being ignored.
A map of a proposed redistricting plan in Louisiana.

The Two Section Twos

The protection against racial gerrymandering in Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is constitutional. Just read Section 2 of the 14th Amendment.
Collage illustration of a founder, Declaration of Independence, and the body of an enslaved person whose arms are in chains.

Whose Independence?

The question of what Jefferson meant by “all men” has defined American law and politics for too long.
Postcard of West Texas State College, 1946.
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The Most Integrated Institution in West Texas

What happened after West Texas State College desegregated its football team in the 1960s.
British flag with writing that says, "Liberty for Slaves."

The Black Loyalists

Thousands of African Americans fought for the British—then fled the United States to avoid a return to enslavement.
Collage of John Roberts and cut-up snippets of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Supreme Court Is Being Tested on History Once Again

The leading arguments in support of Black voting rights were race-conscious at their core.
Clarence Thomas and small sections of the Supreme Court's opinion in Students for Fair Admissions versus Harvard.

Clarence Thomas Accidentally Laid the Groundwork for Reviving Affirmative Action

In trying to shut the door on race-conscious affirmative action, he may have quietly left another affirmative action door wide open.
A suburban road in California.

What Auto Insurance Tells Us about Race, Risk, and Responsibility

Who gets to move freely in California’s auto insurance system?
Federal agents loom over a crowd of protesters at the ICE building on September 28, 2025 in Portland, Oregon.

Trump’s Blueprint to Crush the Left Draws from Decades of Counterterrorism Policy

Trump's NSPM-7 is a pivotal policy endangering free expression in the United States.
Person reading a book, next to a stack of banned books.
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Book Bans, Student Rights and a Fractured Supreme Court Ruling

Island Trees v. Pico tested student rights, free expression and the limits of school boards.
LAPD Chief Daryl Gates in 1991.

When Antipathy to the LAPD’s Chief Was the Great Unifier

A memoir explores L.A.'s political culture after the Rodney King beating.
A drawing of an older man and woman sitting in a consulting room.

The Strange Case of Henrietta Wiley

A habitual drunkard’s journey through guardianship and the asylum.
Prisoners in a cell at Pelican Bay Prison in 2011.

A Brief History of Solitary Confinement in America

The use of the punitive tactic exploded a century after US officials had deemed it too torturous.
USS Boxer, at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, 1905.
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Still Coming Out Under Fire

Revisiting the lessons of Allan Bérubé’s 1990 history of queer solders during World War II.