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Justice

On the struggles to achieve and maintain it.
SECRET stamped multiples times over the United States emblem.

The Troubled History of the Espionage Act

The law, passed in a frenzy after the First World War, is a disaster. Why is it still on the books?
by Amy Davidson Sorkin via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on December 11, 2023
Ronald Reagan signing anti-drug legislation as Nancy Reagan and legislators look on.
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America's War on Drugs Was Always Bipartisan—And Unwinnable

There was really only one big difference between liberal drug warriors and conservative ones.
by Matthew D. Lassiter via Made By History on December 7, 2023
People outside the Lafayette Theatre in 1936.

Movie Theaters, the Urban North, and Policing the Color Line

Confronting segregation as Black urbanites' fight for access and equality in northern cinemas.
by Alyssa Lopez via Black Perspectives on December 5, 2023
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
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on December 4, 2023
Betty Friedan circa 1975.

What Betty Friedan Knew

Judge the author of the “Feminine Mystique” not by the gains she made, but by her experience.
by Hermione Hoby via The New Republic
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on December 1, 2023
Antisemitism Is a Threat to Us All — And to Democracy

Antisemitism Is a Threat to Us All — And to Democracy

How fascists and authoritarians have used antisemitic conspiracy theories to harm Jewish communities and undermine democracy.
by William Horne via Bucks County Beacon on November 28, 2023
Old City Hall, Wall St., New York City.

Originalism and the Nature of Rights

When we try to recover the “original meaning” of constitutional amendments, we begin with deeply engrained premises about the nature of what we're looking for.
by Jud Campbell via The Panorama on November 27, 2023
A diagram of the parts of a flintlock pistol.

Bad Facts, Bad Law

In a recent Supreme Court oral argument about disarming domestic abusers, originalism itself was put to the test.
by Duncan Hosie via New York Review of Books
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on November 25, 2023
Peter Waddell's "A Vision Unfolds" imaginatively depicts Benjamin Banneker advising President Washington and fellow surveyor Andrew Ellicott on the layout of the proposed federal capital.

Banneker’s Answer to Jefferson: “I Am an American”

The black naturalist, astronomer, surveyor, and almanac-writer Benjamin Banneker took issue with Thomas Jefferson’s attitude toward “those of my complexion.”
by Edward J. Larson via American Heritage on November 21, 2023
Italian Americans watch a policeman arrest a man
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The Surveillance of Immigrants Remade American Policing

Modern surveillance policing is rooted in approaches adopted a century ago.
by Matthew Guariglia via Made By History on November 21, 2023
Gen. Robt. E. Lee, 1886.

After the Civil War, Robert E. Lee Couldn't Run for President, but Trump Can?

Despite Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, a Colorado state judge stretches the word “officer,” permitting him to remain on the state’s ballot.
by Garrett Epps via Washington Monthly on November 20, 2023
Photo of a crowded street in NYC with carts and vendors blocking the roads

How the NYPD Attempted to Navigate Cultural and Linguistic Barriers in the Early 20th Century

One of the biggest challenges for the NYPD, especially in the years following the turn of the twentieth century, was policing the newcomer immigrants.
by Matthew Guariglia via Literary Hub on November 17, 2023

The Men Who Started the War

John Brown and the Secret Six—the abolitionists who funded the raid on Harpers Ferry—confronted a question as old as America: When is violence justified?
by Drew Gilpin Faust via The Atlantic
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on November 13, 2023
A white mob poses for a photograph in front of the charred remains of the Daily Record building they burned.

Majority-Black Wilmington, N.C., Fell to White Mob’s Coup 125 Years Ago

The 1898 Wilmington massacre overthrew the elected government in the majority-Black city, killed many Black residents and torched a Black-run newspaper.
by DeNeen L. Brown via Retropolis
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on November 10, 2023
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Conservatives’ Favorite Legal Doctrine Crashes Into Reality

Originalism is all the rage on the right, but a gun case at the Supreme Court is exposing its absurdity—even to the conservative justices.
by Matt Ford via The New Republic
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on November 9, 2023

The War on Ecoterror

Environmental radicalism, left and right.
by Gaby del Valle via The Drift
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on November 8, 2023
Gun safety advocates rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019
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What the Supreme Court Gets Wrong About the Second Amendment

Government, wrote Alexander Hamilton, should substitute “the mild influence” of the law for “the violent and sanguinary agency of the sword.”
by Dominic Erdozain via Made By History on November 7, 2023
Bayard Rustin speaking at an event.

Eclipsed in His Era, Bayard Rustin Gets to Shine in Ours

The civil-rights mastermind was sidelined by his own movement. Now he’s back in the spotlight. What can we learn from his strategies of resistance?
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on November 6, 2023
The Dig
Podcast
The Dig

J. Edgar Hoover’s America

This episode covers the life and career of J. Edgar Hoover, who, for half a century, helmed the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His staunch anti-communism drove him to utilize his position as the leader of the nation's foremost law enforcement agency to root out radicals and quash any non-conformist efforts suspected of being connected with the Soviet Union.
November 6, 2023
Still from "Rustin" film, on steps of Lincoln Memorial.

The Real History Behind Netflix's 'Rustin' Movie

A new film finally spotlights Bayard Rustin, the gay civil rights activist who organized the 1963 March on Washington.
by Zachary Clary via Smithsonian Magazine on November 2, 2023
The front of the Midgeville asylum in Georgia

What Makes a Prison?

Wherever we find the state engaged in potentially lethal repression, we find prison.
by Dan Berger via Public Books on November 1, 2023
Barry Goldwater.

The Twisted History of the American Crime Anxiety Industry

Our political and cultural systems are obsessed with exploiting fears about crime. But it wasn’t always this way.
by Caleb Brennan via The Nation
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on November 1, 2023
Supreme Court Justice Harlan F. Stone

The Supreme Court's World War II Battles

The Franklin Roosevelt-shaped Court wrestled with individual rights as the nation fought to save itself and the world.
by Robert L. Tsai via Washington Monthly on October 30, 2023
Prison hallway

The Silent Treatment: Solitary Confinement’s Unlikely Origins

Characterised today by the noise of banging, buzzers, and the cries of inmates, solitary confinement was originally developed from Quaker ideas.
by Jane Brox via The Public Domain Review on October 25, 2023
African American factory worker assembling an automobile engine.

How the UAW Broke Ford’s Stranglehold Over Black Detroit

The UAW's patient organizing cemented an alliance that would bear fruit for decades.
by Paul Prescod via Jacobin
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on October 23, 2023
Still from the film "Killers of the Flower Moon."

The Real History Behind 'Killers of the Flower Moon'

Martin Scorsese's new film revisits the murders of wealthy Osages in Oklahoma in the 1920s
by Meilan Solly via Smithsonian Magazine on October 18, 2023
Samuel Ringgold Ward

The Many Lives of Samuel Ringgold Ward

A new biography examines the life of the abolitionist, newspaper editor, activist, and globetrotter.
by Kellie Carter Jackson via The Nation
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on October 18, 2023
A Newton's Cradle where a black ball prepares to swing into 4 white ones.

Black Success, White Backlash

Black prosperity has provoked white resentment that has led to the undoing of policies that have nurtured Black advancement.
by Elijah Anderson via The Atlantic
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on October 16, 2023
Lithograph of the brig Acorn leaving port with Sims on board.

Underground Railroad’s Forgotten Route: Thousands Fled Slavery by Sea

Despite depictions of the Underground Railroad, escaping over land was almost impossible in the South. Thousands of enslaved people found allies on the water.
by Tonya Russell via Retropolis
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on October 15, 2023
Madame Restell

‘Hag of Misery’

The abortionist Madame Restell is central to the story of how American women’s reproductive freedom was dismantled in the second half of the nineteenth century.
by Susan Faludi via New York Review of Books
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on October 12, 2023
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