Bella Abzug Began Her Career as an Anti-Racist Lawyer
As an outspoken lawyer, the future congresswoman defended a Black man accused of raping a white woman.
The Madness of John Roberts
The Supreme Court’s pro-choice decision in June Medical Services v. Russo illustrates the Chief Justice's embattled relationship with precedent.
Ye Olde Morality-Enforcement Brigades
The charivari (or shivaree) was a ritual in which people on the lower rungs of a community called out neighbors who violated social and sexual norms.
The Law and Coronavirus
Can environmental law help contain viruses that spill over from animal to human populations?
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.
Do We Have to Tell Them the House Is Haunted?
On the law and mythologies of haunting, from antiquity to today.
Trial by Combat? Trial by Cake!
The medieval tradition of deciding legal cases by appointing champions to fight to the death endured through 1817, unlike its tastier cousin.
The Bold Future of the Outer Space Treaty
With President Trump calling for a “Space Force” and private enterprise increasingly invested in space, what of the dream of international peace?
When FDR Tried to Pack the Courts
Pushing New Deal legislation, FDR proposed that extra justices should be added to the Supreme Court, one for every sitting justice over the age of seventy.