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Trump Would Torch Magna Carta

James Baratta The American Prospect
For centuries, the writ of habeas corpus—a fundamental protection against unlawful imprisonment—has remained a core fixture of democratic governance. Suspending it would defy the Constitution, but Trump is weighing his options.

This Week in People’s History, May 7–13, 2025

Portside
Cartoon of Herbert Hoover staring glumly at the ashes of John Parker's Supreme Court nomination A Racist, Anti-Worker Judge? Not This Year (1930), Curtains for Smallpox (1980), Covid Kills Jobs, Too (2020), The Road to Revolution (1775), A Bad, Bad, Day in Augusta (1970), Even a King’s Word Is Not Law (1215), Red-Baiters Go Home! (1960)

We Should All Be Very, Very Afraid

Erwin Chemerinsky and Laurence H. Tribe The New York Times
Trump is seeking to establish a truly chilling proposition: that no one can stop his administration from imprisoning anyone it wants... If the government can disappear any people it wishes, we all should be very, very afraid.

The New Anti-Antisemitism

Rick Perlstein The American Prospect
You know who has good reason to fear for their safety? People, many of them Jews, getting pummeled by cops and fascists. People getting high-powered rifles aimed at them from rooftops by agents of the state told to be ready to shoot....

A ‘Wary Faith’ in the Courts

Eric Foner The New York Review of Books
A groundbreaking new book demonstrates that even during the days of slavery, African Americans knew a lot more about legal principles than has been imagined.

The Perfectionist Tradition

William P. Jones Dissent Magazine
The African American perfectionists offered “faith” instead of “hope”—emphasizing the struggle to realize a vision of justice rather than passive assurance that it would prevail.
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