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Soldiers, sailors and marines in Los Angeles, June 7, 1943, stopping a street car looking for zoot suits.

Where and How the Zoot Suit Riots Swept Across L.A.

A location-based timeline and interactive map of the L.A. Zoot Suit Riots.
by Christian Orozco via Los Angeles Times on June 2, 2023
Photograph of Afeni Shakur holding a camera.

Afeni Shakur Took on the State and Won

Pregnant and facing decades in prison, the mother of Tupac Shakur fought for her life — and triumphed — in the trial of the Panther 21.
by Tashan Reed via Jacobin on November 18, 2021

Did Medgar Evers’ Killer Go Free Because of Jury Tampering?

Jerry Mitchell revisits a dark episode in the struggle for civil rights.
by Jerry Mitchell via Literary Hub on February 24, 2020
1850s engraving of the Boston Massacre

Black Lives and the Boston Massacre

John Adams’s famous defense of the British may not be, as we’ve understood it, an expression of principle and the rule of law.
by Farah Peterson via The American Scholar on December 3, 2018

A Vestige of Bigotry

The Supreme Court and non-unanimous juries.
by Andrew Cohen via The Marshall Project on September 25, 2017
Catholic activists burn draft files to protest the Vietnam War in Catonsville, Maryland, 1968.

Resistance Reexamined

The complex, sometimes romanticized, but ultimately prophetic Catholic peace movement has critical lessons for today's America amid a genocidal war in Gaza.
by Arvin Alaigh via Commonweal on April 23, 2025
Protestors standing against the death penalty.

An Exercise in Political Imagination: Debating William F. Buckley

Stephen Bright and Bryan Stevenson defended the abolition of capital punishment at a moment when political support for that movement reached its nadir.
by Robert L. Tsai via Liberal Currents on October 31, 2024
Medicine chest.

The Trial That Sparked Maine's 1840 Abortion Statute

Maine passed its first abortion statute in 1840, not long after the pardon of Dr. Call. Could there be a connection?
by Patricia Cline Cohen via Commonplace on October 22, 2024
Supreme Court building.
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Supreme Court Opinions Don't Have to Be the Final Word

The Supreme Court doesn't have the last word; the people do. How attorneys pushed back on the flawed 1987 McCleskey decision.
by Robert L. Tsai via Made By History on June 28, 2024
Historical illustration of the arraignment of Boss Tweed in courtroom (1872).
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A 19th Century Case That Holds a Lesson for the Trump Trials

Fairly applying the rule of law to powerful politicians provides the stability that enables the U.S. to thrive politically and economically.
by Ray Brescia via Made By History on May 20, 2024
Colorful abstract painting

The New Declaration of Sentiments

Four important court cases that have defined the landscape of women’s rights in the United States.
by Elizabeth L. Silver via Los Angeles Review of Books on January 23, 2024
Political cartoon of Trump praying at the foot of a Jefferson Davis statue.

What Happened When the U.S. Failed to Prosecute an Insurrectionist Ex-President

After the Civil War, Jefferson Davis, was to be tried for treason. Does the debacle hold lessons for the trials awaiting Donald Trump?
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on December 4, 2023
Police with face shields in street

Why Aren’t Cops Held to Account?

Decades of Supreme Court decisions have converted qualified immunity from a commonsense rule into a powerful doctrine that deprives people injured by police misconduct of recourse.
by Linda Greenhouse via New York Review of Books on August 30, 2023
Afeni Shakur at a session of the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention, organized by the Black Panther Party, in Philadelphia, September 1970.

How the Shakurs Became One of America’s Most Influential Families

In a white supremacist society, where Black people are still fighting for freedom, the Black family offers protection and, at times, a space for resistance.
by Keisha N. Blain via The New Republic on August 3, 2023
Angela Davis attending her first news conference after being released on bail, February 24, 1972.

Angela Davis Exposed the Injustice at the Heart of the Criminal Justice System

In 1970, Angela Davis was arrested on suspicion of murder. The trial — and her eventual victory — proved to everyone that the justice system was corrupt.
by Joel Whitney via Jacobin on April 1, 2023
Armed police officers searching Black men during the riot in Columbia, Tennessee.

Front-Page News

How the NAACP made the police riot in Columbia, Tennessee national news.
by Tom Hundley via Oxford American on March 28, 2023
Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson at his desk in November 1957.

When Lyndon B. Johnson Chose the Middle Ground on Civil Rights—and Disappointed Everyone

Always a dealmaker, then-senator LBJ negotiated with segregationists to pass a bill that cautiously advanced racial equality.
by Zachary Clary via Smithsonian on January 23, 2023
Drawing of woman crying over her murdered father.

A Gilded Age Tale of Murder and Madness

In opulent seaside Newport, a wealthy and beloved Black businessman turns up dead. The resulting trial will tear the town in two.
by Kay Adams, Nancy Markey via Narratively on November 17, 2022
A faded beige map of New York from the 1700s, showing the city borders and street outlines.

The Manhattan Well Mystery: On America’s First Media Circus Around a Murder Case

The death of Elma Sands and the Manhattan Company.
by Sam Roberts via Literary Hub on October 25, 2022
Lithograph of Aaron Burr
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The Case of Aaron Burr Suggests Donald Trump Won’t Face Consequences

Despite several new lawsuits, investigations, and the bombshell revelations, Trump’s fate will be like that of the former vice president.
by Nicholas Foreman via Made By History on October 5, 2022
Portrait of Aaron Burr, an American politician and lawyer who was the third vice president of the United States, serving during Thomas Jefferson's first term (1801-1805).

A Former Vice President Was Tried For Treason For an Insurrection Plot

Aaron Burr was the highest-ranking official to stand trial for treason, which some people have invoked now amid probes into ex-president Donald Trump.
by Ronald G. Shafer via Retropolis on September 26, 2022
Horses and carriages in front of funeral home

Report of Action Not Received

An accounting of racist murders in nineteenth-century America.
by Stephen Berry via Lapham’s Quarterly on May 11, 2022
Lithograph portrait of William Franklin

Governor William Franklin: Sagorighweyoghsta, “Great Arbiter” or “Doer of Justice”

The actions of one New Jersey royal governor demonstrate a rare case of impartial justice for Native Americans.
by Joseph E. Wroblewski via Journal of the American Revolution on April 7, 2022
Black and white photo of Fatty Arbuckle

Fatty Arbuckle and the Birth of the Celebrity Scandal

A murder charge, a media frenzy, a banishment, and accusations of sexual abuse in Hollywood. What can the Arbuckle affair, now 100 years old, teach us today?
by Michael Schulman via The New Yorker on September 30, 2021
Barn where Emmett Till was killed

His Name Was Emmett Till

In 1955, just past daybreak, a Chevrolet truck pulled up to an unmarked building. A 14-year-old child was in the back.
by Wright Thompson via The Atlantic on July 22, 2021
Woman holding syringe

How Anthony Comstock, Enemy to Women of the Gilded Age, Attempted to Ban Contraception

Hell hath no fury like a man with a vaginal douche named after him.
by Amy Sohn via Literary Hub on July 20, 2021
A group of people at a protest holding signs in support of the Black Panthers.

Revolution Is Illegal

Orisanmi Burton reflects on the legacy of the Panther 21 on the 50th anniversary (to the day) of their acquittal.
by Orisanmi Burton via Spectre on April 21, 2021
People pose with a poster and newspapers at an I.W.W. picnic.

How the IWW Grew after the Centralia Tragedy

A violent confrontation between the IWW and the American Legion put organized labor on trial, but a hostile federal government didn’t stop the IWW from growing.
by Julia Métraux via JSTOR Daily on January 13, 2021
Cover of "Little Lindy is Kidnapped"

We Had Witnessed an Exhibition

A new book about the Lindbergh baby kidnapping focuses on the role played by the media.
by Chris Yogerst via Los Angeles Review of Books on September 24, 2020
Cup of McDonald's coffee
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The Misunderstood McDonald's Hot Coffee Lawsuit

Stella Liebeck was vilified when she was awarded millions after spilling McDonald's coffee in her lap. But the facts told another story.
via Retro Report on October 28, 2019
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