In the case of Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court on Wednesday could decide the fate of a key section of the Voting Rights Act, a centerpiece of the Civil Rights Movement. Here is a recap of the major events and cases related to the act.
As the justices make their final preparations this week for the start of the 2025-26 term, they’ll also address the latest request for a stay of execution. Victor Tony […]
Louisiana urges Supreme Court to uphold order barring race-based redistricting map
Writing that it “wants out of this abhorrent system of racial discrimination,” Louisiana on Wednesday told the Supreme Court in the case of Louisiana v. Callais to leave in place […]
From Repeal to Permanence: Why Ending the Death Penalty Requires Constitutional Change
Historical Background The history of capital punishment in the United States reflects a cycle of reform, reinstatement, and continued controversy. In 1972, the Supreme Court’s decision in Furman ...
Shaping Public Library Legitimacy: Case Analysis of the New York Public Library
The aim of this case study was to empirically elucidate the core elements underpinning the legitimacy of twenty-first-century public libraries, with a particular focus on the New York Public Library (NYPL). We conducted a qualitative content analysis of 24 NYPL annual reports spanning the period from 2000 to 2023 to investigate the ways in which legitimacy is expressed at NYPL and explore the interrelationships among the dimensions of library legitimacy. A coding framework, grounded in the established legitimacy dimensions from Yamagishi, Koizumi, and Larsen’s (2024) research, was utilized alongside a periodization approach to assess how these dimensions interact during key historical events. We examined the NYPL’s reported practices through the lens of five primary dimensions of legitimacy. Analyzing how these practices are reported in annual reports revealed how these dimensions interact and evolve in response to significant societal challenges, including the 9/11 attacks, the global financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The research findings highlight the critical role of both internal factors (such as librarianship) and external influences (such as economic conditions) in sustaining the overall legitimacy of public libraries. This case study provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the complex and dynamic nature of legitimacy in public libraries and demonstrates how these institutions can adapt to and reflect broader societal changes. The findings hold important implications for the development and management of public libraries on a global scale.
Banned: The Fight for Mexican American Studies in the Streets and in the Courts - Nolan Cabrera.
In Banned, readers are taken on a journey through the intense racial politics surrounding the banning of Mexican American Studies in Tucson, Arizona. This book details the state-sponsored racism that led to the elimination of this highly successful program, and the grassroots and legal resistance that followed. Through extensive research and firsthand narratives, readers will gain a deep understanding of the controversy surrounding this historic case. The legal challenge successfully overturned the Arizona law and became a central symbol in the modern-day Ethnic Studies renaissance. This work is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the power of community activism, the importance of fighting for educational equity, and why the example of Tucson created an alternative blueprint for how we can challenge states that are currently banning critical race theory.
From these roots : my fight with Harvard to reclaim my legacy - Tamara Lanier, Liz Welch
"Tamara Lanier grew up listening to her mother's stories about her ancestors. As Black Americans descended from enslaved people brought to America, they knew all too well how fragile the tapestry of a lineage could be. As her mother's health declined, she pushed her daughter to dig into those stories. "Tell them about Papa Renty," she would say. It was her mother's last wish. Thus begins one woman's remarkable commitment to document that story. Her discovery of an eighteenth-century daguerreotype, one of the first-ever photos of enslaved people from Africa, reveals a dark-skinned man with short-cropped silver hair and chiseled cheekbones. The information read "Renty, Congo." All at once, Lanier knew she was staring at the ancestor her mother told her so much about-Papa Renty. In a compelling story covering more than a decade of her own research, Lanier takes us on her quest to prove her genealogical bloodline to Papa Renty's that pits her in a legal battle against one of the most powerful institutions in the country, Harvard University. The question is, who has claim to the stories, artifacts, and remnants of America's stained history-the institutions who acquired and housed them for generations, or the descendants who have survived? From These Roots is not only a historical record of one woman's lineage but a call to justice that fights for all those demanding to reclaim, honor, and lay to rest the remains of mishandled lives and memories"--
Death penalty in decline? : the fight against capital punishment in the decades since Furman v. Georgia - Austin Sarat editor
"This volume presents essays evaluating the similarities and differences between the legal, political, ethical, and practical landscapes confronted by the death penalty abolition movement at the time of the Furman v. Georgia decision and subsequent reversal and those confronted by the same movement today"--
Professor examines court ruling that returned 3M acres to Native American nation | ASU News
In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision to return more than 3 million acres of land in Oklahoma to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The case, McGirt v. Oklahoma, has been described as one of the most significant Native American-related rulings in 100 years.The returned acreage in Oklahoma, including part of the city of Tulsa, is now recognized as “Indian Country,” as defined by federal law.
A survivor's education : women, violence, and the stories we don't tell - Joy Neumeyer
"In Berkeley, on a picturesque university campus in the springtime, a young woman is shoved backwards down a concrete stairway by her partner. This follows months of escalating violence, during which he slams her into walls, chokes her, pours beer on her, threatens to kill her, stalks her, promises to split her head open with a hammer. She ends the relationship, cuts off contact, flees to the other side of the country, and initiates a Title IX case against him at the university. She knows what has happened to her, what she has experienced and survived: abuse, manipulation, threats against her life, gaslighting. She knows she has lived through these trials. But others say, simply, that she hasn't -- and that her boyfriend is the real victim. In this investigative memoir, historian and journalist Joy Neumeyer explores how violence against women is portrayed, perceived, defined, and adjudicated today, decades after the inception of Title IX. Interweaving the harrowing account of the abuse she experienced at the hands of her boyfriend when they were graduate students with those of other women who faced violence on campuses throughout history, Neumeyer offers a startling look at how little has changed in the years since Title IX was enacted, and uncovers its inherent flaws. She takes us through her own experience with the process, and reveals how in an effort to listen to survivors on campuses, the quasi-law, in reality, brings their experience into question. Deeply reported, nuanced and timely, A Survivor's Education demystifies Title IX while also examining how entangled storytelling is with abuse and power, and how we can balance narrative and evidence in our attempts to determine what "really happened.""--
Free speech : what everyone needs to know - Nadine Strossen.
"This concise but comprehensive book engagingly lays out answers to myriad questions about free speech principles and current controversies, including those pertaining to hate speech, disinformation, and social media. Nadine Strossen, one of America's leading free speech scholars and advocates, focuses on modern First Amendment law, explaining the historic factors that propelled its evolution toward more speech protection -- in particular, the civil rights movement. She highlights the many cases in which robust speech-protective principles have aided advocates of racial justice and other human rights causes. The book also shows how these rulings reflect universal, timeless values that benefit everyone, regardless of identity or ideology. Correcting prevalent misunderstandings, the book explains that the First Amendment sensibly permits government to outlaw the speech that is the most dangerous, while outlawing the censorship that is the most dangerous. The book's lively question-and-answer format clearly and memorably presents free speech tenets, citing colorful episodes and eloquent language from landmark Supreme Court opinions. It will be illuminating to a wide range of readers, from those who know nothing about free speech law, to experts who seek a well-organized summary of major doctrines, as well as insights into their background and rationales." --
Breaking – Verdict in Landmark SLAPP Case Against Greenpeace: Water Protector Legal Collective Continues the Call for Corporate Transparency and Accountability, and Respect for Indigenous Sovereignty
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 19, 2025Contact: Nizhoni Begay, WPLC Communications, communications@waterprotectorlegal.org, (210) 324-3393Breaking – Verdict in Landmark SLAPP Case Against Greenpeace: Water Protector Legal Collective Continues the Call for Corporate Transparency and Accountability, and Respect for Indigenous SovereigntyMandan, ND – A North Dakota jury has ruled in favor of Energy Transfer, awarding the company hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in its lawsuit against Greenpea
Trump takes birthright citizenship to the Supreme Court
The president's contention that birthright citizenship is unconstitutional is considered a fringe view because the Supreme Court ruled to the contrary 127 years ago.
Our new data tool, Tracking Major Rules in the Courts, compiles more up-to-date case results that can be easily compared across presidential administrations, and offers additional research findings. Between 2017 and 2021, the Institute for Policy Integrity[[The Institute for Policy Integrity has filed amicus briefs in several of the cases discussed in this Roundup. Policy Integrity did not represent any of the parties.]]documented the outcomes of litigation over the Trump administration's use of federal agencies to implement its policies.[[The Roundup does not include litigation over self-implementing presidential memoranda or executive orders or over project-level decisions.]] We tracked litigation over agency actions such as regulations, guidance documents, and agency memoranda.[[At times, advocates have brought lawsuits over a single agency action in multiple different courts. The Roundup combines decisions from different courts regarding the same agency action in a single entry. ]] The win-loss rate below reflects all decisions through January 20, 2021, when the Biden administration took office. [[A new administration’s litigation strategy may differ from the previous administration’s litigation strategy due to differences in policy objectives. See Bethany A. Davis Noll, “Tired of Winning”: Judicial Review of Regulatory Policy in the Trump Era, 73 Admin L. Rev. 353, 389 (2021) (noting ways in which Biden administration’s strategy changed in light of substantive goals). Accordingly, changes after President Biden took office are not clearly attributable to the Trump administration, and we did not recategorize reversals that occurred after this transition.]] Any reversals or modifications on appeal that occurred during the remainder of 2021 are noted in the case descriptions. [[The Roundup reflects wins and losses as they stood on January 20, 2021 when President Biden was inaugurated and his administration took over the defense of cases. Subsequent reversals on appeal or any other subsequent modifications that occurred prior to April 1, 2022 are noted in the relevant entry, but are not reflected in "win" or "loss" categorizations. If cases in the tracker were instead categorized as wins or losses based on subsequent substantive reversals on appeal or other subsequent modifications that occurred, 57 cases (23%) would have been successful for the administration and 188 (77%) of cases would have been unsuccessful for the administration.]] As of April 25, 2022, those updates are no longer being added.
This site tracks anti-immigrant litigation across the country, follows them through the court system, and houses important filings, news coverage, and advocacy tools to advance a more humane, moral and dignified immigration system.
The pregnancy police : conceiving crime, arresting personhood - Grace Howard
Decades before the overturning of Roe v. Wade, pregnant people faced arrest and prosecution for supposed crimes against the fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses they gestated. The Pregnancy Police investigates the legal arguments undergirding these prosecutions and sheds much-needed light on the networks of health-care providers, social workers, and legal personnel participating in this ongoing surveillance and punishment of pregnant people. Drawing on detailed analyses of legislation, statements from prosecutors and law enforcement, and records from over a thousand arrest cases, Grace E. Howard traces the long history of state attempts to regulate and control people who have the capacity for pregnancy--from the early twentieth century's white supremacist eugenics to the end of Roe and the ever-increasing criminalization of abortion across the United States.
Sex and privacy in American law - Henry F. Fradella.
"Sex and Privacy in American Law presents empirical analyses of civil and criminal state court decisions applying the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Lawrence v. Texas. After tracing key historical and legal developments leading up to the Lawrence decision's decriminalization of sodomy on substantive due process grounds in 2003, the study employs both quantitative and qualitative content analyses of 307 cases citing Lawrence over the two decades since it was decided. Results indicate that judicial decisions rarely embraced broad readings of Lawrence in criminal cases. In fact, Lawrence's long-term impact on criminal law has largely remained as limited as some commentators predicted shortly after the case was decided. In civil cases, courts tended not to rely on Lawrence significantly in most business and employment law cases. Courts that applied Lawrence in family law disputes - especially those involving same-sex couples - often construed the case narrowly at first, but broadened their interpretations after Obergefell v. Hodges brought marriage equality to the United States. Lawrence also impacted LGBTQ+ civil rights claims. Statistically significant geographic differences were found relating to how courts used Lawrence in those cases, with judges in Northeastern and Pacific coastal states having applied the precedent broadly, while judges in Southern and Midwestern states tending to have applied the case more narrowly. The implications are explored generally and within the specific context of the constriction of substantive due process rights in the wake Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization."--
Terror to the wicked : America's first murder trial by jury, that ended a war and helped to form a nation - Tobey Pearl.
"A brutal killing, an all-out manhunt, and a riveting account of the first murder trial in U.S. history--set in the 1600s in colonial New England against the backdrop of the Pequot War (between the Pequot tribe and the colonists of Massachusetts Bay), an explosive trial whose outcome changed the course of history, ended a two-year war, and brought about a peace that allowed the colonies to become a full-blown nation. The year: 1638. The setting: Providence, Plymouth Colony. A young Nipmuc tribesman, returning home from trading beaver pelts, is fatally stabbed in a robbery in the woods near Plymouth Colony, by a white runaway servant and fellow rogues. The young tribesman, fighting for his life, is able, with his final breaths, to reveal the details of the attack to Providence's governor, Roger Williams. A frantic manhunt by the fledgling government of Plymouth ensues, followed by the convening of the first trial, with Plymouth's governor Thomas Prence presiding as judge. The jury: local settlers (white) whose allegiance seems more likely to be with the accused than with the murdered (a native) . . . Tobey Pearl, piecing together a fascinating narrative through original research and first-rate detective work, re-creates in detail the full and startling, pivotal moment in pre-revolutionary America, as she examines the evolution of our nascent civil liberties and the role of the jury as a safeguard against injustice"--
"Louisiana enacted the Separate Car Act which required separate railway cars for blacks and whites. In 1892 Homer Plessy – who was seven-eighths Caucasian – agreed to participate in a test to challenge the Act. He was solicited by the Comite des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) a group of New Orleans residents who sought to repeal the Act. They asked Plessy who was technically black under Louisiana law to sit in a "whites only" car of a Louisiana train."
Why would Clarence Darrow—a lawyer famous for representing the little guy—take a case that meant defending a wealthy, racist murderer? What did he risk? In this episode, Mike talks about racism, power, and moral flexibility in lawyering. There is a cost to losing the values that drove us to law, and Clarence Darrow paid it. Episode Resources Connect with Mike Whelan: The Lawyer Forward Facebook group: The Island Murder (a PBS documentary about the Thalia Massie Affair): Honor Killing: Race, Rape, and Clarence Darrow's Spectacular Last Case:
"This case was the consolidation of cases arising in Kansas South Carolina Virginia Delaware and Washington D.C. relating to the segregation of public schools on the basis of race. In each of the cases African American students had been denied admittance to certain public schools based on laws allowing public education to be segregated by race. They argued that such segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiffs were denied relief in the lower courts based on Plessy v. Ferguson which held that racially segregated public facilities were legal so long as the facilities for blacks and whites were equal.
See justice done : the problem of law in the African American literary tradition - Christopher Michael Brown.
"In See Justice Done: The Problem of Law in the African American Literary Tradition, author Christopher Michael Brown argues that African American literature has profound and deliberate legal roots. Tracing this throughline from the eighteenth century to the present, Brown demonstrates that engaging with legal culture in its many forms-including its conventions, paradoxes, and contradictions-is paramount to understanding Black writing. Brown begins by examining petitions submitted by free and enslaved Blacks to colonial and early republic legislatures. A virtually unexplored archive, these petitions aimed to demonstrate the autonomy and competence of their authors. Brown also examines early slave autobiographies such as Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative and Mary Prince's History, which were both written in the form of legal petitions. These works invoke scenes of Black competence and of Black madness, repeatedly and simultaneously. Early Black writings reflect how a Black Atlantic world, organized by slavery, refused to acknowledge Black competence. By including scenes of Black madness, these narratives critique the violence of the law and predict the failure of future legal counterparts, such as Plessy v. Ferguson, to remedy injustice. Later chapters examine the works of more contemporary writers, such as Sutton E. Griggs, George Schuyler, Toni Morrison, and Edward P. Jones, and explore varied topics from American exceptionalism to the legal trope of "colorblindness." In chronicling these interactions with jurisprudential logics, See Justice Done reveals the tensions between US law and Black experiences of both its possibilities and its perils"--
