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On June 25, 1962, the Supreme Court handed down one of its biggest rulings in the “school prayer” case of Engel v. Vitale. In light of recent proposals calling for a return of school prayer, I thought it might make sense to run through a little of this history. (What
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With new reporting from Pro-Publica showing that Associate Justice Sam Alito — just like Associate Justice Clarence Thomas — has been receiving generous “gifts” from conservative billionaires with business before the Supreme Court, it’s worth remembering the time conservatives hounded a liberal justice off the bench for improper financial ties to
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First of all, I’m so sorry for the double emails on today’s post! (Ray Liotta voiceover: “They called him Kevin Two-Times.”) I’m still figuring out the controls here at Substack Central and wound up sending it twice. The first one should still work to read, but if
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Today marks the anniversary of one of the most brutal chapters in the civil rights movement — the murders of Mickey Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. The three men were all involved in the Mississippi Freedom Summer, an aggressive campaign by activists to register eligible black voters in Mississippi in
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With today’s news about Hunter Biden’s legal troubles, I thought I’d drop a quick note about the all-time champion in the category of First Family Fuckups — the legendary Billy Carter. When his older brother ran for president, Billy Carter found himself thrust into the national spotlight and
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There’s so much terrific work out right now from nineteenth-century American historians on Juneteenth, I’m not even sure where to begin. Annette Gordon Reed’s book On Juneteenth is a terrific (and short) read, but if you’re looking for something even more recent try Tiya Miles’ piece
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Before he became one of the most outspoken critics of the Vietnam War, Daniel Ellsberg — who just passed away at the age of 92 — was one of its architects. In 1965, a half decade before he leaked the Pentagon Papers and inspired a furious Richard Nixon to exact revenge through
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Sorry to be a little late with this — as a historian, I’m not very good with dates — but yesterday actually marked the 80th anniversary of a landmark Supreme Court decision, the so-called “flag salute case” of West Virginia v. Barnette (1943). In truth, the decision was the second “flag
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Just a quick post to say thank you! Campaign Trails is just a week old, but we’ve already passed 5,000 subscribers. Campaign Trails is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I’m enjoying the newsletter even
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True to form, Donald Trump celebrated his arrest yesterday with a speech before his most loyal sycophants. It was the usual firehose of falsehoods. Among other lies, the former president asserted that “according to the Presidential Records Act, which was a big deal, I was supposed to negotiate with NARA”
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With Donald Trump set to be arraigned on federal charges this afternoon, we’ve heard a great deal of commentary about what this moment means in the course of American history. As I noted previously here, the argument advanced by Trump’s defenders — that it’s “illegal and unprecedented” for
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I promised there would be some additional special features for paid subscribers, including AMA chats so … here’s an AMA! Happy to answer any questions about my research and writing, both past projects and the current one. Or questions about contemporary political developments and social movements and/or the history