The 14th Amendment banned Confederates from public office. But the rebels later received an amnesty that now might save GOP members from prosecution for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Abortion rights battles look set to go from the Supreme Court to statehouses.
Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
If the Supreme Court guts landmark rulings that established a constitutional right to abortion, the legal struggle will shift to statehouses and state courtrooms.
The Supreme Court hears a case on Dec. 1, 2021, regarding a Mississippi abortion law that poses a legal challenge to Roe v. Wade.
(Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images
The upcoming debate at the Supreme Court is less about the existence of the right to abortion and more about how that right is limited by the emerging personhood of a fetus.
In Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, the flags of the U.S. and its territory fly side by side.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
A series of Supreme Court cases based on racist language and reasoning still govern the lives of 4 million Americans.
Republican politicians have championed legislation to limit the teaching of material exploring how race and racism influence American politics, culture and law.
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File
New state laws in the US banning teaching about systemic racism raise the question: Does the Constitution protect public school teachers’ right to choose how and what to teach?
Legislation pending in Congress would contribute to reforming how police conduct themselves – but there’s a limit to what federal legislation can do.
Seth Herald / AFP/Getty Images
While many in America are looking to Congress to pass police reform legislation, the federal government has almost no control over state and local police departments.
If the Senate acquits former President Donald Trump in the upcoming impeachment trial, there’s an obscure other way to punish him.
iStock /Getty Images Plus
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was first used against Confederate leaders after the Civil War to expel seditionist politicians. Now it could be used against Donald Trump.
People gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court building as news spread of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Sept. 18 death.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
A 6-3 conservative court will hear a broader range of controversial cases, shift interpretations of individual rights and put more pressure on local democracy to make policy decisions.
Will judges decide who wins the presidential election?
Geoff Livingston/Getty
Amid what will likely be a flood of charges, countercharges and a lot of heated rhetoric, there are prescribed legal processes that will play out in the event of election challenges.
Michael Widomski, left, and David Hagedorn at the makeshift memorial for Justice Ginsburg in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 20, 2020 in Washington, DC. Ginsburg officiated their wedding in 2013.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death sparked many tributes to her work ending sex discrimination against women. That work also paved the way for successes in the fight for equal rights for the LGBTQ community.
African Americans voting in New Orleans in 1867.
19th century illustration via New York Public Library Digital Collection via Wikimedia Commons
If upheld, a federal court ruling would solidify birthright citizenship as the law of the land, and overturn more than a century of federal refusal to grant American Samoans citizenship status.
The Constitution is interpreted differently by the alt-right.
Shutterstock/Joseph Sohm
The growing number of self-taught, right-wing experts on the Constitution believe not only in the rights of white people, but have a comprehensive – if not comprehensible – view of the Constitution.
Federal courts have long declined to enshrine the right to education into federal law. A careful look at the history of the 14th Amendment shows why that may be the wrong approach.
The struggle for equal rights for black citizens in the U.S. today is backed by the promise of the 14th Amendment. A historian takes us back to the grassroots movements that led to its passage.
Supreme Court upholds affirmative action at University of Texas.
Jose Luis Magaua/Reuters
In the Fisher case judgment, the Supreme Court has reminded institutions to assess race-neutral policies. But evidence shows race-neutral policies could worsen racial inequalities.