Illustration of two people trying to communicate through tin-can phones with a disconnected string

How Media Stifles Deliberative Democracy

As outlets that welcome rational exchanges of ideas dwindle those that serve as echo chambers are exploding. What does that mean for free speech and the health of the US?
A print based on David Gilmour Blythe's fanciful painting of Lincoln writing the Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation: Annotated

Abraham Lincoln proclaimed freedom for enslaved people in America on January 1, 1863. Today, we've annotated the Emancipation Proclamation for readers.
Donald Trump's face in the shape of the Twitter logo

Is There a First Amendment Right to Tweet?

How social media companies have imported relatively restrictive European free speech norms to the US.
Larry Lessig

Lawrence Lessig: How to Repair Our Democracy

Law professor and one-time presidential hopeful Lawrence Lessig on campaign finance, gerrymandering, and the electoral college.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1977 ©Lynn Gilbert

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Radical Project Isn’t Finished

A fiery advocate against gender discrimination, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s radicalism reveals itself in her argument for the Equal Rights Amendment.
Signage reading, "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone."

Civil Rights and Private Property Rights

The connection between civil rights and private property rights as they play out in the 1960s and now.