legal history — Bunk History

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Elizabeth Freeman.

How Two Massachusetts Slaves Won Their Freedom — And Then Abolished Slavery

What today's activists can learn from their victories.

by Ben Railton via Made By History on July 3, 2017

Dramatic Courtroom Drawings From Decades of American Trials

The Library of Congress' new exhibition is "Drawing Justice: The Art of Courtroom illustration."

by Rebecca Onion via Slate on June 9, 2017

The Many Lives of Pauli Murray

She was an architect of the civil-rights struggle-and the women's movement. Why haven't you heard of her?

by Kathryn Schulz via The New Yorker on April 17, 2017

The History Test

How should the courts use history?

by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on March 27, 2017

The History of Outlawing Abortion in America

Abortion was first criminalized in the mid 1900s amidst concerns that too many white women were ending their pregnancies.

by Nicola Beisel, Tamara Kay, Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on March 10, 2017

The Curious History of Ellis Island

Ellis Island celebrates its 125th anniversary as the federal immigration depot.

by Matthew Wills, R. Lawrence Swanson, Donald F Squires via JSTOR Daily on January 1, 2017

An American flag flying in front of a large Christian cross.

The Religious-Liberty Attack on Transgender Rights

Conservative Christians are out to restore their historical legal privileges.

by David Sehat via Boston Review on May 27, 2016

“Sodomy is not Adultery”: The Clinton Sex Scandal as Queer History

Until fairly recently, President Clinton's narrow definition of adultery would have been backed up by the courts.

by Alison Lefkovitz via NOTCHES on April 7, 2016

The Strange Career of Free Exercise

How efforts to bolster religious liberty set off a chain of unintended consequences.

by Garrett Epps via The Atlantic on April 4, 2016

Members of the 1976 United States Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Warren Burger, center.

It’s Been 40 Years Since the Supreme Court Tried to Fix the Death Penalty— Here’s How It Failed

A close look at the grand compromise of 1976.

by Evan Mandery via The Marshall Project on March 30, 2016

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Going Negative

Judicial dissent in the Supreme Court has a long history.

by Thomas Healy via Boston Review on November 12, 2015

Donald Trump Meet Wong Kim Ark

He was the Chinese-American cook who became the father of ‘birthright citizenship.’

by Fred Barbash via Washington Post on August 31, 2015

To Have and to Hold

Griswold v. Connecticut became about privacy; what if it had been about equality?

by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on May 25, 2015

How Corrupt Are Our Politics?

A review of Zephyr Teachout's "Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United."

by David Cole via New York Review of Books on September 25, 2014

Elder M. Andrew Robinson-Gaither demonstrates for reparations for slavery.

The Thirteenth Amendment and a Reparations Program

The amendment, which brought an end to slavery in the U.S., could be used to begin a national debate on reparations.

by Ramsin Canon via U.S. Intellectual History Blog on July 12, 2014

How the NRA Rewrote the Second Amendment

The Founders never intended to create an unregulated individual right to a gun.

by Michael Waldman via Politico Magazine on May 19, 2014

Baby sleeping in a woman's arms.

What’s the Definition of “Person”?

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

via BackStory on May 10, 2013

Re-mapping American Politics

The redistricting revolution, fifty years later.

by David Stebenne via Origins on February 5, 2012

On the Death Sentence

David Garland makes a powerful argument that will persuade many readers that the death penalty is unwise and unjustified.

by John Paul Stevens via New York Review of Books on December 23, 2010

A Supreme Court Justice Wrote the Greatest “No Kings” Essay in History

This opinion is a milestone in the rule of law and is regularly cited by conservative and liberal justices alike.

by Gerard Magliocca via Slate on July 10, 2025

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson: A Vote for Cutting Off Your Nose

To reduce Virginia’s use of the death penalty, Thomas Jefferson proposed using permanent disfigurement as a punishment for rape, polygamy, and sodomy.

by Matthew Wills, Emily Cock via JSTOR Daily on June 4, 2025

A drawing of John Adams.

John Adams Is Bald and Toothless

A brief history of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

by Michael Liss via 3 Quarks Daily on May 19, 2025

Donald Trump and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

When Presidents Sought a Third (and Fourth) Term

Winning more than two elections was unthinkable. Then came FDR.

by Russell Berman via The Atlantic on May 1, 2025

Chief Justice John Roberts.

So, How Much of Korematsu Did the Supreme Court “Overrule,” Exactly?

Chief Justice John Roberts called it “obvious” that the infamous decision has “no place in law under the Constitution.” Recent events suggest otherwise.

by Madiba K. Dennie via Balls And Strikes on April 14, 2025

Woodrow Wilson delivering his second innaugural address in front of a large crowd.

America Was at Its Trumpiest 100 Years Ago. Here’s How to Prevent the Worst.

During World War I, America lurched toward autocracy. Resistance was minimal.

by Adam Hochschild via Washington Post on April 3, 2025

Civil rights lawyers including Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley.

Trump's Attack on Lawyers and Law Firms Takes a Page Out of the Southern 1950s Playbook

American authoritarians fear the uniquely American power of litigation.

by Sherrilyn Ifill via Sherrilyn's Newsletter on March 24, 2025

Police officer, yellow tape, and abandoned bikes and lawnchairs after the Highland Park shooting.

How Gun Violence and the Supreme Court Have Shaped Second Amendment Rights

Supreme Court rulings on gun laws highlight the struggle to balance individual rights and public safety.

via Retro Report on January 24, 2025

Home owners Loan Corporation map of Detroit.

Beyond Brown: The Failure of Desegregation in the North and America’s Lingering Racial Fault Lines

On the ongoing legal struggle for educational and racial equality across the United States.

by Michelle Adams via Literary Hub on January 15, 2025

Birthright citizenship form, with infant footprints stamped in black ink, on fire.

The Plot Against Birthright Citizenship

The incoming Trump administration wants to take away citizenship for the US-born children of undocumented immigrants. Here’s how.

by Isabela Dias via Mother Jones on November 26, 2024

Supreme Court justices William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, and Owen J. Roberts at the White House.

FDR’s Compliant Justices

The Supreme Court’s deference to FDR during World War II resulted in unjustifiable ethical breaches.

by Jed S. Rakoff via New York Review of Books on November 14, 2024

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