Justice

Two decades passed before the ghosts of the Rosenbergs came back to haunt Irving Kaufman, the judge who sentenced them to death.

The argument made recently by Kim Forde-Mazrui may not be in good faith, but it does raise important questions about the meaning of the Constitution.

The Supreme Court Justice's defense of Plessy v. Ferguson in a 1993 memo continues to influence the court's interpretation of the 14th amendment.

The war marked a sea change in how black men viewed their own citizenship.

More than 50 years after the Stonewall uprising marked the birth of a movement for LGBTQ+ rights, transgender activists continue to push for inclusion.

Decades ago, labor protests, picketing and strikes often led to violent confrontations between activists and police, although that almost never happens today.

The armed forces continue to grapple with integrating women into an institution historically designed for men.

The key to a successful legal campaign is realizing that gender freedom benefits everyone.

A new biography of King emerges at a "critical juncture" for his legacy.

The fear that overtook us that day in 1988 was unfamiliar to most Americans. Now all too many know how it feels.

The members of the Indiana Women’s Prison History Project scrutinize official records not only for what they reveal, but also for what they omit.

Library book bans are fueling national fights and a new Florida lawsuit. But only one case has come before the Supreme Court: Island Trees v. Pico.

The history of Sephardic Jews challenges our ideas about race in America.

The 1954 Supreme Court decision, based on the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, declared that “separate but equal” has no place in education.

But the backstory was all-American.

For over 20 years, Dr. Albert Kligman experimented on incarcerated men at Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison. Those who profited have yet to redress the harm.

The alleged shooter in Allen, Texas, isn’t the first nonwhite proponent of white supremacy.

Native Americans demand accountability for a federal policy that aimed to erase Indigenous culture.

A revered Supreme Court ruling protected the robust debate vital to democracy—but made it harder to constrain misinformation. Can we do better?

We revere the man and revile the strategy, but King knew what he was doing.

William O. Douglas was a strong advocate of conservation, but as a Supreme Court justice his involvement in such issues was often ethically questionable.

She accused Emmett of accosting her. Her testimony led to acquittals of her husband and his half-brother in a murder that galvanized the civil rights movement.

The 1982 attack against Vincent Chin redefined hate crimes and energized a push for today’s stronger legal protections.

A new book makes the case for a more pragmatic anti-policing movement—one that seeks to build working-class solidarity across racial lines.

The Nixon administration saw methadone as a way to reduce crime rather than treat addiction.

In northern Louisiana, white supremacists slaughtered 150 African Americans, brutally thwarting their hopes for autonomy and self-governance.

One of the cases on which the judge relies said the opposite of what he claims it did.

Gardner's public service did not end with her lifelong advocacy for women's equality, but continued even after her death.

With the Comstock Act of 1873 coming back to life, reproductive care, LGBTQ protections, and a host of other civil rights are now at risk.

Anthony Comstock, the 19th-century scourge of art and sex, is suddenly relevant again thanks to Donald Trump’s worst judge.