Supreme Court

Stella Stimson, a suffragist and temperance crusader, led an all-women campaign to document fraud at the polls and bring down a corrupt mayor.

When a Trailblazing Suffragist and a Crusading Prosecutor Teamed Up to Expose an Election Conspiracy

An unlikely duo exposed political corruption in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1914—and set a new precedent for fair voting across the country

Gilbert Stuart painted the famous Lansdowne portrait of George Washington. 

Before Andy Warhol Set His Eyes on Marilyn and Prince, There Was Gilbert Stuart and George Washington

Two court cases over 200 years apart reflect what happens when commercial and artistic interests meet

The interactive map, called Segregation Explorer, tracks demographic trends across the country.

This Map Lets You See How School Segregation Has Changed in Your Hometown

The new interactive tool accompanies a study of school enrollment data, which shows that segregation has worsened in recent decades

The law eventually caught up to the man of many names: Daniel Jackson Oliver Wendell Holmes Morgan.

The Fabulous Fabulist Lawyer Who Wasn’t, but Still Managed to Get a Man Off Death Row

Take in the remarkable tale of the fake attorney best known as L.A. Harris, whose scams put him in trouble with the law in jurisdictions nationwide

A 1942 Memorial Day service at Manzanar, a Japanese American incarceration camp in California

How a 1924 Immigration Act Laid the Groundwork for Japanese American Incarceration

A Smithsonian curator and a historian discuss the links between the Johnson-Reed Act and Executive Order 9066, which rounded up 120,000 Japanese Americans in camps across the Western U.S.

Camille Pissarro's Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain (1897) hangs at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.

Court Rules Against Returning Nazi-Looted Pissarro Painting to Jewish Family

Sold in exchange for exit visas in 1939, the estimated $30 million masterpiece will stay at a Spanish museum

Sandra Day O'Connor, Michael Arthur Worden Evans, circa 1982

How Sandra Day O’Connor Brought Compromise to the Supreme Court

The first woman justice to serve on the nation's highest court died on Friday at age 93

Visitors enter Historic Fort Snelling. A new exhibition at the site examines the fort's long, complex history.

New Exhibition Examines the Many Converging Histories of Minnesota's Fort Snelling

The site was the backdrop for critical moments in Native American, African American and Japanese American history

The Titanic struck an iceberg on the evening of April 14, 1912, and sank several hours later in the early morning hours of April 15.

The U.S. Government Is Trying to Stop an Upcoming Titanic Expedition

A company is planning a mission to recover artifacts, including the famed Marconi wireless telegraph, in 2024

Protesters attend a rally in support of affirmative action in college admissions on October 31, 2022.

The History Behind the Supreme Court's Affirmative Action Decision

The phrase, first used in early 20th-century employment laws, is at the center of two new rulings against its use in higher education

An illustration of Anthony Comstock, published in Puck magazine in 1906

The 150-Year-Old Comstock Act Could Transform the Abortion Debate

Once considered a relic of moral panics past, the 1873 law criminalized sending "obscene, lewd or lascivious" materials through the mail

Pop artist Andy Warhol sits in front of artworks at his studio, the Factory, in New York City in 1983.

Supreme Court Rules That Andy Warhol Violated a Photographer's Copyright

Experts are debating what the case will mean for the future of fair-use law

Portable altar of Countess Gertrude, shortly after 1038

Heirs of Jewish Art Dealers Move Forward With Yearslong Restitution Battle

For over a decade, they've argued that their ancestors were forced to sell valuable artifacts. Now, they're back in court with a new legal strategy

Wong Kim Ark's departure statement

How the Fight for Birthright Citizenship Shaped the History of Asian American Families

Even after Wong Kim Ark successfully took his case to the Supreme Court 125 years ago, Asian Americans struggled to receive recognition as U.S. citizens

Pro-choice protesters in 1972

The Underground Abortion Network That Inspired 'Call Jane'

A new film offers a fictionalized look at the Janes, activists who provided illegal abortions in Chicago before Roe v. Wade

Andy Warhol's 1984 Prince series

Are Andy Warhol's Silkscreens of Prince a Copyright Violation?

The Supreme Court hears a case that could redefine the limits of fair use and creative expression

In their dissent, the court's three liberal judges wrote that their fellow justices had stripped the EPA of “the power to respond to the most pressing environmental challenge of our time.”

How the Clean Air Act Came to Be

A new Supreme Court ruling curbs the EPA's ability to regulate carbon pollution under the 1970 legislation

Attorney Gloria Allred (left) and Norma McCorvey (right), the anonymous plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, during a pro-choice rally in Burbank, California, on July 4, 1989

Who Was Norma McCorvey, the Woman Behind Roe v. Wade?

Dubbed "Jane Roe," McCorvey sought an abortion after becoming pregnant in 1969 but was thwarted by Texas' restrictive reproductive laws

Members of the Janes in 1972

When Abortion Was Illegal, Chicago Women Turned to the Jane Collective

A new documentary spotlights the group that helped thousands seeking abortions in the 1960s and '70s

Before the critical 1965 Supreme Court ruling Griswold v. Connecticut, state and federal morality laws prohibited access to contraceptives, even to married couples (above: a picketer protests the opening of a new Planned Parenthood Center in New Haven, Connecticut).

The Revolutionary 1965 Supreme Court Decision That Declared Sex a Private Affair

A Smithsonian curator of medicine and science looks back to the days when police could arrest couples for using contraception

Page 1 of 2