Law

The Two Constitutions

James Oakes’s deeply researched book argues that two very different readings of the 1787 charter put the United States on a course of all but inevitable conflict.

June 8, 2023 issue

Garry Wills

The Court Kills

Why do we slaughter our own children? Because the Supreme Court condones it.

April 4, 2023

Jed S. Rakoff

The Frontier Justice

William O. Douglas was a strong advocate of conservation and environmentalism, but as a Supreme Court justice his involvement in such issues was often ethically questionable.

May 25, 2023 issue

Erin Maglaque

Unwanted Thoughts

Robin Vose’s new history of the Index of Prohibited Books shows how Catholic censorship was, despite its totalizing ambitions, often incoherent and contradictory.

June 8, 2023 issue

Manisha Sinha

The Beautiful Struggle

Several scholars have been recovering the lives and ideas of antebellum Black activists by studying their involvement in early Black newspapers and conventions.

April 20, 2023 issue

Joseph O’Neill

Embracing Defeat

Faced with a coordinated right-wing legal assault, the Democratic Party has responded with a passivity that borders on surrender.

April 23, 2023

David Cole

An Abortion Drug Tests the Supreme Court

How the justices resolve a case over the FDA’s longstanding approval of mifepristone will reveal whether they rule by personal ideology or by judicial restraint.

April 18, 2023

Garry Wills

What Friends Are For

For decades Justice Clarence Thomas has received lavish gifts from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. What’s Crow been getting in return?

April 11, 2023

Law & Justice

David Cole

Surprising Consensus at the Supreme Court

With narrow rulings in many of its most controversial cases, the Court defied predictions of a sharp turn to the right.

August 19, 2021 issue

Jenny Uglow

Contagious Constitutions

Linda Colley shows in her new book that written constitutions developed both as a means of shoring up entrenched rulers and of turning successful rebellions into legitimate governments.

June 10, 2021 issue

Ankush Khardori

Merrick Garland’s Moderation to Excess

As attorney general, he is the United States’ top law enforcement officer. But is he enforcing enough?

July 15, 2021

Jed S. Rakoff

Sentenced by Algorithm

Computer programs used to predict recidivism and determine prison terms have a high error rate, a secret design, and a demonstrable racial bias.

June 10, 2021 issue

The Latest

Linda Greenhouse

An Unhealthy Definition of Rights

For the new majority on the Supreme Court, religious liberty takes precedence over the government’s power to protect public health.

December 21, 2023 issue

Daniel Immerwahr

Zoning Out

A recent book contends that the global economy has a new geography of special zones, islands, and enclaves that benefit the world’s wealthiest residents.

November 23, 2023 issue

Sean Wilentz

The Revolution Within the American Revolution

Supported and largely led by slaveholders, the American Revolution was also, paradoxically, a profound antislavery event.

October 23, 2023

Susan Faludi

‘Hag of Misery’

The midwife and 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.

November 2, 2023 issue

Noah Feldman

The Court’s Conservative Constitutional Revolution

The bloc of conservative justices on the Supreme Court have dismantled many of the legal precedents on their hit list. What’s in store for the new term?

October 5, 2023 issue

Daniel J. Kevles

Unreasonable Terms

In Owning the Sun, Alexander Zaitchik shows how American drug companies have exploited government contracts to pursue profit over public interest.

October 5, 2023 issue

Linda Greenhouse

Why Aren’t Cops Held to Account?

Decades of Supreme Court decisions have converted qualified immunity from a commonsense rule into a powerful doctrine that deprives people injured by police misconduct of recourse.

September 21, 2023 issue

Sean Wilentz

American Carnage

Jeffrey Toobin’s book about Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing traces the path from Ronald Reagan’s antigovernment ideology to today’s radicalized right.

August 17, 2023 issue

Duncan Hosie

How DeSantis Packed the Florida Supreme Court

With his right-wing judicial appointments, the governor of Florida has been carrying out the mission of the Federalist Society and removing barriers to his political agenda.

July 20, 2023

David Cole

The Supreme Court Picks Its Battles

June ended with far-reaching upsets for civil rights, but a closer look at the Supreme Court’s decisions across the 2022–2023 term suggests the justices are not immune to public scrutiny.

July 4, 2023