Justice

The history of the Supreme Court is replete with outrages and abominations, but they can be tough to overcome.

Fifty years ago in 1972, as spring faded and summer arrived in late June, America (and the world) was a vastly different place.

The conservative Supreme Court's favorite judicial philosophy requires a very, very firm grasp of history — one that none of the justices seem to possess.

How the city’s pioneering, pot-smoking queer activist rose from the ashes of anti-gay violence.

The centrist, compromising view of reproductive rights in Planned Parenthood v. Casey helped clear the path to overturn Roe v. Wade.

How activists can secure legal abortion with a diverse all-of-the-above movement.

A lack of enforcement has blunted Title IX's transformative potential.

Why reinserting race and class into our understanding of Pride is so important.

It’s time to admit that the nation’s highest court has been a source of harm more often than it’s been a force for justice.

Black generosity has always been vital to the freedom struggle.

Looking back at the short but deep friendship of John Brown and Harriet Tubman, who gave their lives to the abolitionist cause.

In Oregon in the 1960s, the debate over capital punishment hinged on shifting interpretations of the gendered female body.

40 years after Vincent Chin’s murder, the struggle against anti-Asian hate continues.

"It didn’t make much sense for us to be talking about justice in the classroom if we weren’t willing to get in the struggle in the streets."

The Supreme Court has found protections for people’s privacy in several constitutional amendments – and used it as a basis for some fundamental protections.

Why vigilante violence appeals politically.

“The schoolhouse door cannot be closed to one of modern society’s most marginalized, most vilified groups.”

A Red-Black alliance defended political prisoners and drew attention to death and prison sentences disproportionately handed out to people of color.

Emancipation Days symbolized America’s attempt to free the enslaved across the nation. But those days were unable to prevent new forms of economic slavery.

Five months before his assassination in 1978, Harvey Milk called on the president of the United States to defend the rights of gay and lesbian Americans.

The Supreme Court’s expanding interpretation of the Second Amendment threatens longstanding democratic authority to enact gun safety measures.

Officials have described the recent shooting as an aberration in the “City of Good Neighbors.” But this conceals the city’s long-standing racial divisions.

And Congress should claw it back.

In 1790, Philadelphia opened the first American penitentiary, with the nation’s first solitary cells. Black people were disproportionately punished from the start.

As the Cherokee Nation’s first female chief’s image is minted onto a coin, her full humanity should be examined.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito made reference to the legal opinions of English jurist Henry de Bracton, foreshadowing the court overturning Roe v. Wade.

A two-volume biography tracks the life and times of one of Harlem’s leading socialists.

Contrary to contemporary claims, Susan B. Anthony and her peers rarely discussed abortion, which only emerged as a key political issue in the 1960s.

This isn’t the first time the U.S. Postal Service has played a role in curbing women’s reproductive rights.

A conversation with historian Donna Murch about the past, present, and future of Black radical organizing.