legal history

• 
• 1/31/2021
  

  Palin v. New York Times is a Textualist Land Mine for the First Amendment

  by Richard E. Labunski

  In June, trial will begin in Sarah Palin's libel case against the New York Times. The case appears to be teed up on a path to the Supreme Court, where the current "actual malice" standard for proving a public figure was libeled could be overturned. If this happens, the door will be open to lawsuits aimed at crushing press criticism of the government.

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• SOURCE: Texas Monthly
  1/5/2020
  

  Until 1968, a Married Texas Woman Couldn’t Own Property or Start a Business Without Her Husband’s Permission. This Dallas Attorney Changed That

  Louise Raggio was the Texas attorney who pushed for the Marital Property Act of 1967 which legally allowed married women to take legal and financial actions without their husbands' permission (her prior legal career had been in technical violation of the law). 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  12/14/2020
  

  Unequal Before the Law

  Sara Mayeux's history of public defenders shows how the liberal reform movement that established a system to provide counsel to the poor buttressed the systemic slant of the justice system against them. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/15/2020
  

  For 200 Years Courts Upheld Rules to Protect Americans’ Health. Until Now

  by John Fabian Witt

  "Now a new generation of judges, propelled by partisan energies, look to deprive states of the power to fight for the sick and dying in a pandemic in which the victims are disproportionately Black and brown."

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• SOURCE: Duke Center for Firearms Law
  10/14/2020
  

  Amy Coney Barrett on Guns

  by Jake Charles

  A Second Amendment scholar examines the SCOTUS nominee's historical interpretation of prohibitions on individual firearm ownership, concluding that her record shows a commitment to gun rights but uncertainty about how she might rule on particular cases.

• 
• SOURCE: Harvard Gazette
  9/21/2020
  

  The Harvard Community Reflects on the Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  Harvard scholars including legal historian Tomiko Brown-Nagin describe the contributions the late Justice Ginsburg made to gender equality under law and to the legal profession. 

• 
• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  9/11/2020
  

  ‘On the Books’: Machine Learning Jim Crow

  by William Sturkey

  Lawyer and activist Pauli Murray undertook the arduous task of identifying racially discriminatory laws across the United States, and published a volume cataloguing them in 1950 as a took for attorneys working to dismantle Jim Crow. A University of North Carolina project uses technology to complete that task and demonstrate the historical pervasiveness of racism in the law.

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• SOURCE: Boston Review
  9/1/2020
  

  What's Next for Abortion Law?

  by Mary Ziegler

  Thinking historically about the abortion debate shows a shift in the ground of conflict from questions of rights to questions of restriction. The debate has always been about how the costs and benefits of childbearing are shared in society.

• 
• SOURCE: Legal History Blog
  8/30/2020
  

  Anne Fleming: Business Historians Remember

  Anne Fleming is remembered as an outstanding scholar and generous colleague. 

• 
• SOURCE: Real Change News
  7/30/2020
  

  Untold Fight for Black Women's Voting Rights

  In anticipation of Martha Jones' book 'Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All'.

• 
• SOURCE: Newsweek
  2/16/20
  

  Legal Historian Jed Shugerman Says William Barr's Actions Are "Remarkably Not Normal"

  In this interview, Shugerman faults Barr for refusing to use special counsels, and calls for structural reforms to ensure greater Justice Department independence in the future.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  1/20/20
  

  The Neighborhoods We Will Not Share

  by Richard Rothstein

  Persistent housing segregation lies at the root of many of our society’s problems. Trump wants to make it worse.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  12/5/19
  

  Don’t Embrace Originalism to Defend Trump’s Impeachment

  by Saul Cornell

  Liberal legal scholars are at risk of falling into a right-wing trap.

• 
• SOURCE: Madman of Chu
  12/5/19
  

  The Turley Dilemma

  by Andrew Meyer

  If we look at Jonathan Turley's argument against impeachment, we can see the outlines of a dilemma that faces the president, the Republican Party, and by extension the entire country.

• 
• 12/1/2019
  

  William Barr’s Upside-Down Constitution

  by Robert J. Spitzer

  The Trump administration’s many questionable actions have raised both new and old concerns about the extent and reach of executive power.

• 
• SOURCE: AP
  10/22/19
  

  A 1946 Mob Lynching Case in Georgia Puts Court Focus on Grand Jury Secrecy

  Historian Anthony Pitch's quest for the truth about a gruesome mob lynching of two black couples is prompting a U.S. appeals court to consider whether federal judges can order grand jury records unsealed in decades-old cases with historical significance.

• 
• SOURCE: Time
  10/8/19
  

  9 Landmark Supreme Court Cases That Shaped LGBTQ Rights in America

  Regardless of how the justices rule in the cases, the court’s decisions would not be the first time that the Supreme Court made major decisions impacting LGBTQ people’s civil rights in the United States. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  10/3/19
  

  Inside the Supreme Court ruling that made Nixon turn over his Watergate tapes

  The historic judgment that U.S. presidents do not hold unchecked power to declare executive privilege set a precedent that courts would consider in evaluating whether President Trump could shield his own communications from external scrutiny amid an impeachment inquiry.

• 
• 9/29/19
  

  How Ideologues and Partisans Seized the Court: From Nixon to Trump

  by Thom Hartmann

  When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. —Richard M. Nixon 

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• SOURCE: New Books Network
  9/9/19
  

  Habeas Corpus in Wartime: Derek Litvak Interviews Amanda L. Tyler

  by Derek Litvak

  Habeas Corpus in Wartime is a comprehensive history of the writ of habeas corpus in Anglo-America.