Justice

Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century jurist, has been endlessly quoted by American judges and lawyers, with awful repercussions for women.

The struggle for progress is always two steps forward and at least one step back.

To take away the right to privacy is to take a giant step backward in American history.

What my father saw in Mississippi.

The originalist case for lifting abortion restrictions.

The bad history in Alito’s draft overturning Roe v. Wade.

Black Americans continue to fight for access to the public school systems their forebears created, against a history of white backlash and appropriation.

But it remains unfinished.

In her new role as antisemitism envoy, Deborah Lipstadt will attempt to fight a scourge of antisemitism that she seems to regard as incurable.

The school said it had benefited from slave-generated wealth and practiced racial discrimination.

Today, the holiday is just a chance for ExxonMobil to release nonsensical ad campaigns. But once upon a time, it was a radical success story.

The public widely opposed wiretapping until the 1970s. What changed?

Did the Confederacy have a constitutional right to secede? And did Lincoln violate the Constitution in forcing them back into the Union and freeing the slaves?

As the deadline to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment lapsed in June 1982, the amendment's foes celebrated, while its proponents looked to the future.

At least 20 states have introduced “Don’t Say Gay” laws this year. But in a handful of states, versions of the legislation have existed for decades.

While W. E. B. Du Bois praised an expanding penitentiary system, T. Thomas Fortune called for investment in education and a multiracial, working-class movement.

This post is part of a symposium on “The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution,” a new book by Joseph Fishkin and William E. Forbath.

Alan Berg was an outspoken radio host known for debating people with racist views. His death in a 1984 shooting uncovered a web of white supremacists.

Rejecting the resignation of the 1970s and ’80s, Robinson found in the disinvested ruins of the city a new egalitarian form of politics.

As baseball celebrates the 75th anniversary of Robinson’s breaking the color line, it’s worth remembering a man at odds with his own myth.

A new book examines the ways white slaveholders were compensated, while formerly enslaved people were not.

Before Colin Kaepernick, Jackie Robinson wrote, ‘I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a Black man in a white world.’

Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, is part of a long legacy of anti-gay rhetoric and legislation in the state.

On a broiling summer afternoon in 1978, the Women's Movement held what was then known as the largest parade for feminism in history.

King could not accomplish what philosophers and theologians also failed to—distinguishing moral from immoral law in a polarized society.

Steve Kaslov sought to improve the civic status and rights of Romani people in the United States.

In Early America, some prestigious residents advocated for the replacement of cane sugar, supplied by enslaved workers, with maple sugar from family farms.

The actions of one New Jersey royal governor demonstrate a rare case of impartial justice for Native Americans.

Thousands of Americans die preventable deaths each year. Why do we consider them mishaps?

An overview of historical scholarship and socio-cultural developments in America to explain how racism became institutionalized against Black Americans.