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Lincoln's Habeas Corpus Precedent

Ultimately, only a civic culture alert to and upset by abuses of power can safeguard sound republican government.
by Gary Schmitt via Law & Liberty on May 19, 2025
Clark Mills’s statue of Andrew Jackson, Lafayette Park, Washington D.C., circa 1910–1925

Vance’s Junk History

When Donald Trump and his followers go in search of historical forerunners to justify their regime, they turn with striking regularity to the presidency.
by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on April 25, 2025
Alleged enemy aliens on way to detention camp, Gloucester, New Jersey, 1918.
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The Alien Enemies Act: Annotated

Confused about the oft-mentioned Alien Enemies Act? This explainer, with links to free peer-reviewed scholarship, may help clear things up.
by Liz Tracey via JSTOR Daily on April 25, 2025
Grave of John Quincy Adams.

From Son of the Revolution to Old Man Eloquent

A new Library of America edition of John Quincy Adams’s writings demonstrates the enduring appeal—and real shortcomings—of his revolutionary conservatism.
by Michael Lucchese via Law & Liberty on April 11, 2025
Exhibit

President Precedents

How Americans understand the powers of the office and the legacies of past leaders.
Silhouettes of John Tyler and John Quincy Adams
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The Constitution Does Not Speak for Itself

In 1841, John Tyler said he was the president. The Constitution said he wasn’t. What happened next?
by Eric Eisner, David B. Froomkin via HNN on April 1, 2025
Donald Trump at Lancaster Airport on November 3, 2024, in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

This Is America

Donald Trump’s authoritarian second term has led critics to describe him as a fascist in the mold of Adolf Hitler.
by Daniel Bessner via Jacobin on March 27, 2025

George Washington Knew the Difference Between Running a Business and Running the Government

The first businessman president realized that working with Congress – not alone or against it – was the best way to create an efficient federal government.
by Eliga Gould via The Conversation on March 10, 2025
Donald Trump holding up a fist.

The Man Madison Warned Us Against

He authored the Constitution to forestall the rise of a despotic president. We’ll soon see if those safeguards suffice.
by Harold Meyerson via The American Prospect on February 17, 2025
Jimmy Carter in the 1970s visiting a town in Brazil that commemorates Confederate expats.

Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024

As an individual, Jimmy Carter stood as a rebuke to our venal and heartless political class. As a politician, his private virtues proved to be public vices.
by Tim Barker via Origins of Our Time on January 1, 2025
President Jimmy Carter seated at desk in Oval Office, hands steepled.

Jimmy Carter Held the Door Open for Neoliberalism

His unwillingness to take a radical stance forced him to respond to events by imposing austerity and doing little to strengthen labor.
by Sean T. Byrnes via Jacobin on December 29, 2024
Richard Nixon at a press conference pointing at a reporter.

Nixon’s Official Acts Against His Enemies List Led to a Bipartisan Impeachment Effort

An enemies list isn’t a weapon against ‘the Deep State.’ It was a tool Richard Nixon used to create a deep state of his own.
by Ken Hughes via The Conversation on December 18, 2024
Donald Trump and RFK Jr. shaking hands.

The Magic Thinking of Kennedy-ism

The hero worship of the family of American royalty has a dark side: a tendency toward conspiracism that fits with the MAGA movement.
by Rick Perlstein via The American Prospect on December 5, 2024
Grover Cleveland.

How Grover Cleveland’s Grandson Feels About Donald Trump

Trump is often described as unprecedented, but in winning a non-consecutive second term, he has a significant antecedent: Grover Cleveland.
by Zach Schonfeld, George Cleveland via TIME on November 19, 2024
John Quincy Adams posing for a photograph.

Now Is Not the Time for Moral Flexibility: The Example of John Quincy Adams

We must stand by the principles of the open society, pluralism, freedom, and mutual toleration.
by Alan Elrod via Liberal Currents on November 13, 2024
Donald Trump standing behind a podium at a campaign event with his family at his side.

It’s the Charisma, Stupid

It’s not whom you’d want to get a beer with, but whom you’d want to watch getting a beer.
by Mark Oppenheimer via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on November 6, 2024
Donald Trump

Donald Trump Would Be Weaker the Second Time Around

Donald Trump wants the ideology of William McKinley and Gilded Age Republicanism, but with a totally different social base. It won’t work.
by Paul Heidman via Jacobin on October 23, 2024
Portrait of Martin Van Buren.

The Father of the Party System

Because Martin Van Buren was an unsuccessful president, his more significant contributions to the nation’s political life have also been obscured.
by James M. Bradley via OUPblog on October 18, 2024
Caesar's profile is eerily set against the Great Seal of the United States.

US President or American Caesar?

American democracy has been haunted by the spectre of a Caesar-type figure since the birth of the republic. Have such fears ever been justified?
by Ian McDaniel via History Today on September 25, 2024
White house with a crown on it, next to Westminster Palace.

America’s King

America long ago rejected the trappings of monarchy in favor of republicanism, but many have wanted to have it both ways.
by Howe Whitman III via Law & Liberty on September 10, 2024
Joe Biden waving.

Joe Biden and the Art of the Presidential Farewell

Plus: How George Washington almost ruined his own exit from the national stage.
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via The Bulwark on August 19, 2024
People holding antiwar signs at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

A Brief History of the Democratic Party

The Democratic Party, and the US political system as a whole, is a very strange beast.
by Doug Henwood, Adam Hilton via Jacobin on August 6, 2024
William McKinley

Trump Is Right About McKinley

“The most underrated president” was a model of successful governance in a world in flux.
by Sean Durns via The American Conservative on August 1, 2024
Illustration of John Roberts, with face obscured by half of the presidential seal.

The Supreme Court Fools Itself

The Roberts Court has made the current crisis of American democracy perpetual.
by Adam Serwer via The Atlantic on July 24, 2024
The side of Donald Trump's face, focused on his bandaged ear from his attempted assassination.

Historians See Echoes of 1968 in Trump Assassination Attempt

But they also find key differences.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on July 17, 2024
Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale at 1984 presidential debate.

When a Debate Flop Raised Concerns About Ronald Reagan's Fitness to Run for Re-Election

During the 1984 campaign, the 73-year-old president meandered his way through his face-off against Walter Mondale, prompting questions about his mental acuity.
by Eli Wizevich via Smithsonian on July 11, 2024
Chief Justice John Roberts attending the State of the Union.

J. Roberts et al. v. A. Lincoln

As the Supreme Court invents a law to negate all others, Chief Justice John Roberts now ranks just below Roger Taney.
by Harold Meyerson via The American Prospect on July 8, 2024
Donald Trump speaking into microphone and pointing his finger.

‘I’d Rather Have 10 Ken Starrs Than One Donald Trump’

A new book explores the history of presidents who abused their constitutional power and the citizen movements that stopped them.
by Michael Kruse, Corey Brettschneider via Politico on July 8, 2024
Chief Justice Earl Warren (left), President Richard Nixon (center), and Chief Justice Warren E. Burger (right).

I Argued ‘U.S. v. Nixon.’ The Supreme Court’s New Ruling on Presidential Immunity Appalled Me.

Fifty years after ruling against a corrupt president, the Court has now decided that presidents are above the law.
by Philip Allen Lacovara via The Bulwark on July 8, 2024
Joe Biden lifting finger.

Hey Man, We’re Out of Runway

On three histories of the Biden White House, and the 2024 election.
by Christian Lorentzen via London Review of Books on July 8, 2024
Donald Trump walking onstage, next to four American flags.

‘The Dred Scott of Our Time’

The Supreme Court has invested the presidency with quasi-monarchial powers, repudiating the foundational principle of the rule of law.
by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on July 4, 2024
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