Dred Scott v. Sandford (1957)

A Trump-Biden transition is sure to be scary. But it’d be hard to beat Buchanan-Lincoln.

Political contests over the ideological slant of the Court are nothing new.

The Supreme Court, the federal branch with the least public accountability, has historically sided with tradition over more expansive human rights visions.

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg concludes an era of faith in courts as partners in the fight for progress and equality.

The confluence of Black and Indigenous history at Bdote.

Black people suffer disproportionately from police violence. But white skin does not provide immunity.

Lessons from Frederick Douglass on the tortured relationship between protest and change.

Could Donald Trump really rival James Buchanan?

History is not kind to those who divide and dither.

Due to racist policies, Black Americans are dying of COVID-19 at much higher rates than whites, and nowhere more so than in St. Louis.

The 50-year effort to advance a conservative legal agenda.

From the Framers on, Americans have understood our fundamental law to oppose ownership of persons.

A towering new biography of the great American orator and public intellectual Frederick Douglass.

How Plessy v. Ferguson shaped the history of racial discrimination in America.

When it comes to partisan Supreme Court nominations, history repeats itself.

What happens when the Patent Office doesn't recognize the inventor as a person at all?

In 1868, black activists had already been promoting birthright as the basis of their national belonging for nearly half a century.

How John Marshall, Joseph Story, and Roger Taney strengthened the institution of slavery and embedded in the law a systemic hostility to fundamental freedom and basic justice.

How birthright citizenship became a barrier for undocumented immigrants.

For some time now, the answer has not been the abolitionists.