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Old City Hall, Wall St., New York City.

Originalism and the Nature of Rights

When we try to recover the “original meaning” of constitutional amendments, we begin with deeply engrained premises about the nature of what we're looking for.
by Jud Campbell via The Panorama on November 27, 2023

The Right to Have Rights

Hannah Arendt’s conception of human rights has much to say to our contemporary moment.
by Stephanie Degooyer, Alastair Hunt via Public Books on May 3, 2018
original

How We Learned to Love the Bill the Rights

A new book argues that the fetishization of the first ten amendments is a recent thing – and that it comes at a cost.
by Sara Mayeux on February 8, 2018
Engraving of Founding Fathers reading the Declaration of Independence while onlookers rally.

Does America Have a Founding Philosophy?

It depends on how you read the Declaration’s “self-evident” truths.
by James R. Stoner, Jr. via Modern Age on July 1, 2025
Graphic of a nickel displays the words "nullification," "compact," and "sever" on Jefferson's head.

Thomas Jefferson Would Like A Word With You

Thomas Jefferson's limited government ideal quickly conflicted with the U.S. Constitution and the dominant Federalist Party, prompting a radical proposal.
by Michael Liss via 3 Quarks Daily on June 16, 2025
U.S. Constitution

This Book Could Change the Way Conservatives Read the Constitution

“Against Constitutional Originalism” by historian Jonathan Gienapp could fundamentally reorient how we understand America’s founding.
by Cass R. Sunstein via Washington Post on September 25, 2024
Chief Justice John Roberts.

The Supreme Court Has Murdered the Constitution

America’s founding document is now an all-but-meaningless scrap of paper. Happy Fourth!
by Ryan Cooper via The American Prospect on July 4, 2024
Painting of the Boston Tea Party.

“Boston Harbor a Tea-pot This Night!” 

The dumping of tons of tea in protest set the stage for the American Revolution and was a window on the culture and attitudes of the time.
by Benjamin L. Carp via American Heritage on March 19, 2024
Layered collage of an eye over the portrait of Thomas Jefferson, against the backdrop of the Declaration of Independence.

Who Really Wrote ‘the Pursuit of Happiness’?

The voice of Doctor Johnson, archcritic of the American Revolution, was constantly in mind for the Declaration of Independence’s drafter.
by Peter Moore via The Atlantic on July 4, 2023
Mountain with both living and dead trees.
partner

Did Montana Violate Its Residents’ Right To a Clean Environment?

A new lawsuit builds on 50 years of history in environmental activism.
by Scott Wasserman Stern via Made By History on June 12, 2023
Shredded "Don't Tread On Me" flag.

The Long Afterlife of Libertarianism

As a movement, it has imploded. As a credo, it’s here to stay.
by Benjamin Wallace-Wells via The New Yorker on May 29, 2023
Painting of pilgrims on a boat embarking towards the New World

One Manner of Law

The religious origins of American liberalism.
by Marilynne Robinson via Harper’s on July 1, 2022
A picture of the front of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court’s Faux ‘Originalism’

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.
by Joshua Zeitz via Politico Magazine on June 26, 2022
A demonstrator outside the Supreme Court as the court rules in the Dobbs v. Women’s Health Organization abortion case on June 24, 2022.
partner

Overturning Roe Could Threaten Rights Conservatives Hold Dear

Parental rights stem from the same liberty that the Supreme Court just began rolling back.
by Julia Bowes via Made By History on June 24, 2022
Image of Martin Luther King Jr. within a jail cell.

What Makes Laws Unjust

King could not accomplish what philosophers and theologians also failed to—distinguishing moral from immoral law in a polarized society.
by Randall Kennedy via Boston Review on April 11, 2022
Picture of the many different people that make up the US.

The Right to Leave

Thomas Jefferson was a proponent of open migration. But who qualified as a refugee?
by Stephanie Degooyer via Lapham’s Quarterly on March 29, 2022
Brett Kavanaugh
partner

What Justice Kavanaugh Gets Wrong About Abortion and Neutrality

Calls for the court to remain neutral have long been tools for denying Americans rights.
by David Cohen, Maya Manian via Made By History on December 13, 2021
Close up illustration of Frederick Douglass

An American Conception of Justice

Historians have demonstrated how central racism has been to the formation of the U.S. But many of those same ideas have also been vital to combating white supremacy.
by Michael Kazin via Dissent on August 30, 2021
"Head of a Negro" (1777 or 1778), by John Singleton Copley.

The Declaration of Independence’s Debt to Black America

When African Americans allied themselves with the British, the Patriots were enraged, and they acted.
by Woody Holton via Washington Post on July 2, 2021
"We the People"; US Constitution

It Would Be Great if the United States Were Actually a Democracy

The pervasive mythmaking about the supposed wisdom of the founders has covered up a central truth: the US Constitution is an antidemocratic mess.
by Aziz Rana, Chris Maisano via Jacobin on February 16, 2021
Wallpaper printed in support of the Constitutional Union Party’s presidential candidate, John Bell, in 1860.

A Constitution of Freedom

During the 1860 presidential election, political parties dueled over the intent of the framers.
by James Oakes via Lapham’s Quarterly on January 20, 2021
COVID-19 particles with the bill of rights written over them

The Forgotten Third Amendment Could Give Pandemic-Struck America a Way Forward

An overlooked corner of the Constitution hints at a right to be protected from infection.
by Alexander Zhang via The Atlantic on October 21, 2020

Is Freedom White?

In our current politics we must be attentive to how talk of American freedom has long been connected to the presumed right of whites to dominate everyone else.
by Jefferson Cowie via Boston Review on September 23, 2020

What Right to Vote? There’s a Lie at the Heart of American Democracy

The centennial of women’s suffrage which guaranteed all women the right to vote — has a lie at its very core.
by Lisa Tetrault via New York Daily News on August 22, 2020

The Depression-Era Book That Wanted to Cancel the Rent

“Modern Housing,” by Catherine Bauer, argued—as many activists do today—that a decent home should be seen as a public utility and a basic right.
by Nora Caplan-Bricker via The New Yorker on July 18, 2020
Illustration of Founders signing the Declaration of Independence.

How the Meaning of the Declaration of Independence Changed Over Time

When Thomas Jefferson penned ‘all men are created equal,’ he did not mean individual equality, says Stanford scholar.
by Jack Rakove, Melissa De Witte via Stanford University on July 1, 2020
partner

The Revolutions

Ed Ayers visits public historians in Boston and Philadelphia and explores what “freedom” meant to those outside the halls of power in the Revolutionary era.
via Future Of America's Past on March 16, 2020

Slavery, and American Racism, Were Born in Genocide

Martin Luther King Jr. recognized that Imperial expansion over stolen Indian land shaped and deepened the American Revolution’s relationship to slavery.
by Greg Grandin via The Nation on January 20, 2020
Political cartoon about Reconstruction.

The Buried Promise of the Reconstruction Amendments

The historical context of the amendments passed in the wake of the Civil War, Eric Foner argues, are widely misunderstood.
by Eric Foner, Isaac Chotiner via The New Yorker on September 9, 2019

State of the Unions

What happened to America’s labor movement?
by Caleb Crain via The New Yorker on August 26, 2019
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