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The Long Road to Women’s Suffrage

The “Anthony Amendment” was introduced with no luck for 41 years. And even then, it wasn’t for everyone.

Frederick Douglass Forum

An online forum on the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass.
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Electing the House of Representatives

A series of interactive maps showing the results of nearly two centuries of congressional elections.

America Is Living James Madison’s Nightmare

The Founders designed a government that would resist mob rule. They didn’t anticipate how strong the mob could become.

Citizenship Shouldn't Be a Birthright

Guaranteeing citizen status simply for being born here is a deliberate misreading of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Citizens: 150 Years of the 14th Amendment

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

How Corporations Won Their Civil Rights

The Court got it right—but it's not a conclusion we should be entirely comfortable with.

The Birth of the Brady Rule: How a Botched Robbery Led to a Legal Landmark

Every law student knows John Brady’s name. But few know the story of the bumbling murder that ended in a landmark legal ruling.
Putin and Trump.

The Secret Life of Statutes: A Century of the Trading with the Enemy Act

What began as an effort to define and punish trading with the enemy has transformed into economic warfare.

Why We Doubt Capable Children

How we inherited our modern understanding of childhood from the 18th-century revolutionary era.
National Guard on the Rio Grande.
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Can President Trump Legally Send Troops to the Border?

Critics argue the move would violate the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act. One problem: There is no 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.

How Congress Used the Post Office to Unite the Nation

Trump says Amazon is scamming the USPS. But its low shipping rates were a game changer for rural America.

Congress Handed to the President the Power to Level Tariffs

A republic needs a legislature that can handle such tasks. We don’t have one.

Dred Scott Strains the Mystic Chords

Dred Scott was an opportunity to settle what the South had previously been unable to achieve either legislatively or judicially.

James Madison Would Like a Few Words on Trade Wars

The fourth president tried all kinds of sanctions to open markets, but still ended up in the War of 1812.

Josef K. in Washington

A review of "Closing the Courthouse Door: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable" by Erwin Chemerinsky.
Drawing showing Nixon and Clinton in a criminal line-up

How Impeachment Works

It’s not enough to bring the articles of impeachment against an official – you have to convict them, too.
Painting of a slave auction.

Teaching Hard History

A new study suggests that high school students lack a basic knowledge of the role slavery played in shaping the United States.
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What the Prisoners’ Rights Movement Owes to the Black Muslims of the 1960s

Black Muslims have been an influential force in the prisoners' rights movement and criminal justice reform.
Trump smirking.

Was 2017 the Craziest Year in U.S. Political History?

A dozen historians weigh in.

When Speech Meets Hate

A legal expert offers a First Amendment analysis of the summer’s violent rallies.

The Troubled Rise of the Technocrat

The notion that a government’s chief obligation is getting stuff done is a fairly recent arrival on the historical scene.

Confederate Revisionist History

Americans should not honor a revolt to uphold slavery with monuments or florid displays.
Original printing of the Articles of Confederation in a glass display case at Williams College in 2007.

‘We Have Not a Government’: The US Before the Constitution

What the political crisis in post-revolutionary America has to teach us about our own time.

How to Balance Competing Claims of Religious Freedom?

Peyote use has been defended with religious liberty arguments. So has Bible reading in public schools.

Gun Anarchy and the Unfree State

The real history of the Second Amendment.

No Rights Which the White Man Is Bound to Respect

The spectre of Dred Scott is haunting St. Louis.

The Supreme Court’s Quiet Assault on Civil Rights

The Supreme Court is quietly gutting one of the United States’ most important civil rights statutes.

Where Did the Term 'Gerrymander' Come From?

Elbridge Gerry was a powerful voice in the founding of the nation, but today he's best known for the political practice with an amphibious origin.
Allegorical lithograph entitled "Reconstruction," by J. L. Giles in 1867.
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Why the Second American Revolution Deserves as Much Attention as the First

The first revolution articulated American ideals. The second enacted them.

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