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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.
President Bill Clinton addresses crowd at Waikiki.

An Unrelinquished Claim and Vested Interest

A conversation with John David Waiheʻe III, former Governor of Hawai‘i, on the U.S. apology to the Hawaiian people.
Finger pointing to a writ of habeas corpus filed on behalf of Sojourner Truth

State Archives Find Sojourner Truth’s Historic Court Case

A document thought lost to history shows how Sojourner Truth became the first Black woman to successfully sue white men to get her son released from slavery.
Lady Justice statue.

The Untold Story of Ordinary Black Southerners’ Litigation During the Jim Crow Era

Between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement, about a thousand black southerners sued whites who had wronged them.
Handcuff cuffed around wedding ring

“Marital Rape” Was Legal Longer Than You Think

In 1984, only 18 American states denied that wives were the sexual property of their husbands.
White men strapping a Black man into an electric chair.
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Matters of Life and Death

Systemic racism and capital punishment have long been intertwined in Virginia, the South, and the nation.

Why the Long Shadow of Bush v. Gore Looms Over the Supreme Court’s Colorado Case

In the fight over keeping Trump’s name on the ballot, the 2000 decision is a warning but not a precedent.
Bylaw excerpt of racial restrictions in housing.
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A New Law Addresses the Harm Done by Decades of Racist Housing Practices

The Washington state law provides low-interest loans for down payments for those harmed by racially restrictive covenants.
Painting of a ship in stormy waters, Thomas Buttersworth, A Topsail Schooner in a Heavy Swell

Insurance For (and Against) the Empire

Marine insurance itself was a business that flourished during periods of war and uncertainty. It had a complex relationship with the British state.

Alabama’s Capitol Is a Crime Scene. The Cover-up Has Lasted 120 Years.

How more than a century of whitewashed history poisons Alabama today.
Map of Charleston Harbor, 1822.

Elkison v. Deliesseline: The South Carolina Negro Seaman Act of 1822 in Federal Court

Elkison v. Deliesseline presented a federal court with the question of whether a state could incarcerate and enslave a free subject of a foreign government.
Baby sleeping in a woman's arms.
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What’s the Definition of “Person”?

Two court cases that defined and changed the nature of personhood.

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