Breaking News

Will SCOTUS Uphold Claim of Heirs for Return of Pissarro Painting Stolen by Nazis?

Lower courts have agreed with the Spanish government that US courts are not empowered to adjudicate claims of looted art; if the Supreme Court agrees it could chill further attempts to use American law to return artworks stolen from Europe's Jews by the Nazis. 

Manchin and Sinema are Fulfilling John Roberts's Vision

by Ronald Brownstein

"Roberts, who served as a young clerk to conservative Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist and as a Justice Department assistant in the Reagan administration, has long expressed hostility to federal oversight of voting and election rules."

Has the Betrayer of Anne Frank and Her Family Been Identified?

Investigators have theorized that Arnold van den Bergh betrayed the Franks, fellow Jews, in a desperate attempt to save himself from being sent to the concentration camp. 

60 Minutes Report: Who Betrayed Anne Frank?

While investigators believe they have identified the person who revealed the Frank's hiding place to the Nazi occupiers of Amsterdam, the revelation opens, rather than closes, questions of responsibility and community obligations.

A Teenager Got More Women of Color Represented in the History Curriculum of a Large School District

"Prasidha Padmanabhan, 16, founded WEAR (Women for Education, Advocacy and Rights), a nonprofit with an executive board made up entirely of students."

Rev. William Barber II: Voting Rights Not Just a Black Issue

"America’s memory of Jim Crow has been distorted by a political culture that pays lip service to Dr. King while forgetting his vision of a democracy that works for all Americans."

Fighting Racial Bias with an Unlikely Weapon: Footnotes

Slavery lives on in the law in the form of precedent. A new legal history movement seeks to highlight cases where disputes involved enslaved people and reconsider whether they constitute a fair basis for legal decisions today. 

A Bill Proposed a New Way to Teach History. It Got the History Wrong.

“The gross mistake in this bill is indicative of the need to have scholars and teachers, not legislators/politicians, shaping what students at every level learn in the classroom,” Caroline Janney, a professor of Civil War history at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, said in an email.

Alabama's Capitol is a Crime Scene, with a 120 Year Coverup

The Alabama Capitol in Montgomery was the first seat of the Confederate government and the place where white Democrats ratified a Jim Crow constitution in 1901. You'd learn little of this by touring the museum-like building. 

The Soldiers Came Home Sick. The Government Denied It Was Responsible

Veterans of post-9/11 wars are increasingly showing serious lung damage. Is the Pentagon concealing the role of "burn pits" in creating airborne toxins? 

Is the Challenge to Madison Cawthorn's Re-Election Eligibility For Real?

The text and historical application of the 14th Amendment means that the courts could bar the North Carolina MAGA Congressman from seeking reelection because of his endorsement of the January 6 attack on the Capitol which sought to overturn Joe Biden's election. 

Healthy Democracies Don't Scapegoat Their Teachers

"The failure to confront authoritarianism and the failure to defend public schools and educators from Covid is the same failure. When an institution is a cornerstone of democracy, you fight for it, you fund it, and you respect it."

How the Cold War Killed Cannabis as We Knew It

When Henry Kissinger sought to assert American control of Caribbean bauxite ore reserves, he set off a political dirty war that poisoned the Jamaican interior and destroyed prominent strains of cannabis in the name of marijuana interdiction. 

Biden to Endorse Changing Filibuster Rules for Voting Rights Legislation

The President is expected to endorse limited changes to the filibuster rules to enable a straight majority vote on voting rights legislation, while perserving the filibuster for other legislation. 

Thank a Hungry Badger for Discovering a Vast Cache of Roman Coins

The badger could not be reached for comment. 

Washington Post Launches Database of 1,700 Members of Congress Who Owned Slaves

"For the first seven decades of its existence, Congress returned again and again to one acrimonious topic: slavery. Many of the lawmakers arguing in Washington were participants in the brutal institution at home."

Federal Lawsuit Charges Ivy League, other Elite Universities with Collusion on Admissions, Tuition

"According to a lawsuit filed in Illinois federal court late Sunday by law firms representing five former students who attended some of the schools, the universities engaged in price fixing and unfairly limited aid by using a shared methodology to calculate applicants’ financial need."

At Rosewood's 100th Anniversary, Black Residents and Descendants Return

Commemoration of the white vigilante violence and arson against the town of Rosewood prompted the wry observation that the ceremonies brought more Black people to the town than had been there since the events of January 1923. 

A Racist 1890 Law Still Blocks Black Americans from Voting

Fewer than 200 Mississippians in the last 25 years have successfully petitioned for the restoration of their voting rights after felony convictions.

Ornstein: Five Filibuster Myths

"Supporters of the status quo have their reasons, many of them caught up in myths about the history of the Constitution and the Senate’s role."