Justice John Roberts.

The Supreme Court Could Take Another Shot at Voting Rights

If the justices take up a case on Virginia’s felon disenfranchisement law, they’ll be burrowing back to Reconstruction-era jurisprudence.
Filmmaker Oliver Stone speaks to journalists following a hearing with the House Oversight Committee at the US Capitol on April 1, 2025, in Washington, DC.

Oliver Stone Goes to Washington

Legendary filmmaker Oliver Stone says we’re closer than ever to finally piecing together the mystery of November 22, 1963.
Huddie Lesbetter's draft registration card.

Secret Recordings Show President Roosevelt Debating Military Desegregation with Civil Rights Leaders

More than a year before Pearl Harbor, President FDR heard arguments from the civil rights leaders of the era for the desegregation of the military.
U.S Department of Justice "Notice to Aliens of Enemy Nationalities"

What Is the Alien Enemies Act?

Trump is relying on a 1798 law with a bad history.
Chief Justice John Roberts.

So, How Much of Korematsu Did the Supreme Court “Overrule,” Exactly?

Chief Justice John Roberts called it “obvious” that the infamous decision has “no place in law under the Constitution.” Recent events suggest otherwise.
US and Mexican immigrant rights activists march through the Arizona desert to draw attention to unjust immigration policies.

What the Birth of the Sanctuary Movement Teaches Us Today

The birth of the sanctuary movement some 45 years ago can teach us a lot about how to respond to today’s attacks on immigrants.
Trans activist Sylvia Rivera during her “Y’all better quiet down” speech at an early gay pride rally in New York City, 1973.

Why Are Trans People Such an Easy Political Target? The Answer Involves a Surprising Culprit.

Making a whole group of people this vulnerable does not just happen overnight.
Bertrand Russell.

‘Vietdamned’

Can a new book rescue Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre’s activism from irrelevance?
Patrick Henry giving a speech to a crowd of Virginians.

What Spurred the South to Join the American Revolution?

How a dispute with a Scottish lord over westward expansion, gunpowder, and the future of enslaved labor made the southern colonies’ embrace the radical cause.
Painting by Hiroki Kawanabe titled Wide Street.

Legacies of Japanese American Incarceration

Brandon Shimoda’s book about the memorialization of Japanese internment camps also speaks to the brutal system of migrant detention that continues to this day.
Book Cover of "An Ordinary White."

Basic Stuff About Reality

On David Roediger’s “An Ordinary White: My Antiracist Education.”
George W. Bush delivering a speech.

George W. Bush Lives on in Donald Trump’s Migrant Policies

The “war on terror” led to a sweeping curtailment of immigrants’ rights that swept up green card holders as well as citizens.
Harry Bridges surrounded by a group of men.

Before Mahmoud Khalil, There Was Harry Bridges

The U.S. government repeatedly tried to deport the midcentury labor leader over his alleged ties to the Communist Party.
Drawing of the fight between two congressional representatives titled "Congressional pugilists," 1798.

Alien Enemies, Alien Friends, and the Concept of “Allegiance”

With controversy raging over the Alien Enemies Act, how should we understand the concept it invoked?
Civil rights lawyers including Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley.

Trump's Attack on Lawyers and Law Firms Takes a Page Out of the Southern 1950s Playbook

American authoritarians fear the uniquely American power of litigation.

The Dark, McCarthyist History of Deporting Activists

Donald Trump is using decades-old laws to expel critics and opponents.
People attending a teach-in.

A Way to Honor the Teach-in Movement at 60

It’s time for another national teach-in movement.
Demonstrator with a sign advocating the release of Mahmoud Khalil.

Trump’s Deportations Are a Throwback to Red Scare Politics

The long tradition of the US government using border policy as a tool for political control, stretching back to Red Scare efforts to suppress left-wing dissent.
A drawing of a variety of social movements protesting.

Peaceable Revolutions

Linda Gordon argues that social movements are vital partnerships that, by challenging the status quo, are indispensable to the health of the nation.
Three members of the Wages for Housework campaign running a table and handing out pamphlets.

Home Is Where the Unpaid Labor Is

A new history traces the development and influence of the global Wages for Housework movement from its founding to present day.
A UC Berkeley student picket supports a strike protesting demonstrators’ arrests, 1964.
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Whose Side Are College Administrators On?

There’s a long history of politicians targeting student protesters — and of campus leaders abetting those efforts.
Arrested demonstrators of the University of California Free Speech Movement during their trial in Berkeley, California, 1965.

America Needs a New Free Speech Movement

Donald Trump is showing us what an unaccountable class of corporate decision-makers looks like—and it looks like a lot of fear, and a terrible loss of freedom.
A crowd of Black children walking into school.

How Delayed Desegregation Deprived Black Children of Their Right to Education

On the ongoing battle to desegregate schools across America throughout the 1960s.
The L.A. Eight, in 1987.

The Last Time Pro-Palestinian Activists Faced Deportation

Mahmoud Khalil’s case is eerily similar to that of the L.A. Eight when students were targeted not because of any criminal activity but because of their speech.
Mary Beth Tinker and her mother.
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How Tinker v. Des Moines Established Students’ Free Speech Rights

“The lesson of the Tinker case is: Speak up. Stand up,” Mary Beth Tinker told us.
Men work in an FBI office.

FBI and CIA Conducted Illegal Surveillance of 1960s Student Activists in the South

Newly declassified records reveal how paranoia about subversion in conservative states resulted in major constitutional violations.
A U.S. Postal Service employee loading a van with mail.

How Mail Delivery Has Shaped America

The United States Postal Service is under federal scrutiny. It’s not the first time.
Flags of Native American tribes at Omaha Beach memorial.

No, Native American Citizenship Does Not Support Limits on Birthright Citizenship

This defense misconstrues both the Constitution and the Supreme Court decisions relying on it.
Students demonstrating against the Shah of Iran, Washington, DC, 1979.
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Indifferent to the Fate of Freedom Elsewhere

Jimmy Carter is known for his defense of human rights worldwide. But in 1979, he threatened to deport thousands of Iranian student protesters.
A line of women athletes linking arms and wearing shirts with a passage from Title Nine on the back.

Women's Sports Happened By Accident, And Could Be Taken Apart On Purpose

The long battle against Title IX.