CATEGORY: HISTORY
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The Ratification of the Bill of Rights
December 15 marks Bill of Rights Day, commemorating the 1791 ratification of the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, collectively known as the Bill of Rights. However, crafting a Bill of Rights was highly controversial at the time.
The Most Contentious Presidential Election You’ve Never Heard Of
The disputed Hayes-Tilden 1877 presidential election almost tore the country apart. Instead, it reshaped its postbellum philosophy.
Constitutional Interpretation: Legal Realism, Originalism, and Living Constitutionalism
In this post, we’ll be diving into the history and principles of three theories of constitutional interpretation—originalism, legal realism, and living constitutionalism—and analyzing how these different theories have been put into practice in rulings of the Court.
The Infamy of the Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott v. Sandford, a Supreme Court decision made in 1857, is largely regarded as one of the most infamous decisions in the Supreme Court’s history. This case determined that people of Black African descent were not entitled to U.S. citizenship.
4 Notorious Cults in American History
For this blog, we use “cult” to refer to groups with a leader who exerted an excessive and dangerous amount of control over their followers. Let’s dive into where each of these four cults came from and how they came to their tragic end.
The Scopes Monkey Trial
On May 5, 1925, Tennessee high school teacher John Scopes was charged with the crime of teaching his students about the science of human evolution. The Scopes Monkey Trial, as it came to be known, was a national spectacle, and continues to influence First Amendment interpretation today.
The History of Hawai‘i: How a Kingdom Became a State
The wildfires that ravaged the Hawai‘ian island of Maui and completely destroyed the city of Lahaina last month have rekindled conversations about the controversial history of how Hawai‘i came to be an American state in the first place.
The History of Minimum Wage in the United States
Millions of Americans struggle to make ends meet, working multiple jobs to make up for the fact that the federal minimum wage has not kept up with the rate of inflation. However, it hasn’t always been difficult to live off of a minimum wage job.
Forever Wild: The History of the Adirondack Park
New York State’s Adirondack Park is the largest state park outside of Alaska, consisting of six million acres of protected land in Upstate New York. Since 1892, these lands have been protected as “forever wild” by the New York State Constitution.
