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Our First Authoritarian Crackdown

A new book persuasively argues that the Federalists’ attempt to squash opposition and the free flow of ideas was even more nefarious than we thought.

The Racist History of Curfews in America

The restrictions imposed during recent racial justice protests have their roots in efforts to “contain” Black Americans. 

How the Republican Party Took Over the Supreme Court

The 50-year effort to advance a conservative legal agenda.
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A Founder of American Religious Nationalism

On Rousas Rushdoony's political thought and lasting influence on the Christian right.
Statue of Thomas Jefferson and an American flag.
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Jefferson's Other Legacy: Religious Liberty

Religious bigotry is only less pressing today than racial bigotry because of progress Jefferson helped bring about.

Republicans and Democrats Are Describing Two Different Constitutions

Conservatives and liberals both cite the nation’s charter, but they’re not talking about the same parts of it.

A Brief History of Porn on the Internet

Pornographers were in many ways the innovators who fueled the rise of the internet as we know it.
Drawing of "Uncle Sam," a common national personification of the U.S., crouched over a church. He appears to be listening to what is going on inside.

Under God

Our secular government is all tangled up with God. How did we get here?

A Century of American Protest

A side-by-side look at some of the political protests that have shaped American politics over the past hundred years.

The Original Constitution of the United States: Religion, Race, and Gender

The Constitution of 2018 is not the Constitution written by the Framers in 1787, and no one should wish otherwise.

Artificial Persons

The long road to "Citizens United."

Roger Goodell’s Father Had a Political Backbone—Why Doesn’t Roger?

The NFL commissioner is bending to pressure from a reactionary Republican president—something his father refused to do.
Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg Is Still Thinking About the Papers He Didn’t Get to Leak

The man who leaked the Pentagon Papers is back with a new book, The Doomsday Machine.

The Origin of Silicon Valley's Dysfunctional Attitude Toward Hate Speech

Today, Silicon Valley is still arguing Stanford's 1989 debate over hate speech.
Seal of the County of Lehigh, Pennsylvania

Lehigh County, Pa., Fights the Courts to Keep the Cross in Its Seal

The case hinges on whether its display is to honor local history or Christianity.
President Richard Nixon prepares to go on television May 23, 1970 in the Oval Office.
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When It Comes to Harassing the Media, Trump is No Nixon

Trump challenges the press. Nixon changed it.

History Frowns on Partisan Gerrymandering

On the eve of a major redistricting case at the Supreme Court, a look back at what the nation's founders would have thought.

What’s Hidden Behind The Walls Of America’s Prisons

Prisons today undergo criticism but in the 19th and the 20th century prisons treated their inmates as "slaves of the state.”

Why Federal Employees Can Thank FDR for Some Restrictions on Their Tweets

The Hatch Act was crafted in response to New Deal-era political maneuvering.

Free from the Government

The origins of the more passive view of the freedom of the press can be traced back to Benjamin Franklin.
W.E.B. Du Bois

When W. E. B. Du Bois was Un-American

W. E. B. Du Bois may be our keenest critic of Trumpism today.

Freedom vs. Liberty: Why Religious Conservatives Have Begun to Chose One Over the Other

Religious "freedom" and "liberty" have always had different connotations.
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Going Negative

Judicial dissent in the Supreme Court has a long history.
Full text of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, etched in stone.

What Does It Mean To Make America "Christian?"

The "Christian Amendment" and the push for Christianity to be established as the national religion of the United States.

How Corrupt Are Our Politics?

A review of Zephyr Teachout's "Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United."
Fisher Ames, Founding Father and arch-foe of democracy.

Died on the 4th of July

Fisher Ames’s philosophy can be summed up as follows: the “power of the people, if uncontroverted, is licentious and mobbish.”

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