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    In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly relied on history to decide major questions of constitutional law. But the Court’s historical accounts are often deeply flawed, departing significantly from historians’ understandings of the past and their shared methods for creating accurate interpretations of it.

    To help change the national legal conversation on history and the Constitution, the Brennan Center has convened a council of 18 expert historians from leading institutions nationwide.

    The council’s members include winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the MacArthur Fellowship, as well as numerous awards given by history’s top professional organizations. Their expertise spans from early American history through the 20th century and covers the gamut of topics relevant to today’s biggest constitutional questions.

    The council will advise the Brennan Center’s experts on the historical dimensions of major legal issues, encourage accurate understandings of the United States’ past, and foster more responsible approaches to history in the courts as judges increasingly grapple with whether and how the past should inform their rulings. The council’s members have diverse views on how history matters to the law. The council as a body does not necessarily speak for all its members, nor do its members necessarily endorse the positions that the Brennan Center takes on historical matters.

    The council’s members and their areas of expertise are listed below. Their institutional affiliations are provided for identification purposes only.

    Council Members

    • Headshot of Holly Brewer

      Holly Brewer

      University of Maryland — Burke Chair of American Cultural and Intellectual History and Associate Professor of History
    • Headshot of Tomiko Brown-Nagin

      Tomiko Brown-Nagin

      Harvard University — Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of History; Dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
    • headshot of gregory downs

      Gregory Downs

      University of California-Davis — Professor of History
    • Headshot of Laura Edwards

      Laura Edwards

      Princeton University — Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the History of American Law and Liberty and Professor of History
    • Tera W. Hunter

      Tera W. Hunter

      Princeton University — Edwards Professor of American History; Chair, Department of African American Studies
    • Headshot of Jonathan Gienapp

      Jonathan Gienapp

      Stanford University — Associate Professor of Law; Associate Professor of History
    • Headshot of Alexander Keyssar

      Alexander Keyssar

      Harvard Kennedy School — Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy
    • Headshot of Jane Manners

      Jane Manners

      Beasley School of Law, Temple University — Assistant Professor
    • Headshot of Kate Masur

      Kate Masur

      Northwestern University — Professor of History; Board of Visitors Professor
    • Headshot of Dylan Penningroth

      Dylan Penningroth

      University of California-Berkeley School of Law — Professor of Law and Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of History; Associate Dean, Program in Jurisprudence and Social Policy/Legal Studies
    • Headshot of Farah Peterson

      Farah Peterson

      University of Chicago Law School — Professor of Law
    • Headshot of Jack Rakove

      Jack Rakove

      Stanford University — William R. Coe Professor of History and Professor of Political Science, Emeritus
    • Headshot of Gautham Rao

      Gautham Rao

      American University — Associate Professor of History
    • Headshot of Noah Rosenblum

      Noah Rosenblum

      New York University School of Law — Assistant Professor of Law
    • Headshot of Rachel Shelden

      Rachel Shelden

      Pennsylvania State University — Associate Professor of History; Director, George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center
    • Headshot of William Treanor

      William Treanor

      Georgetown University — Paul Dean Professor of Law; Dean of the Law Center and Executive Vice President
    • Headshot of Jennifer Tucker

      Jennifer Tucker

      Wesleyan University — Professor of History; Director, Center for the Study of Guns and Society
    • Headshot of Rosemarie Zagarri

      Rosemarie Zagarri

      George Mason University — Distinguished University Professor and Professor of History

    Works & Resources

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    VIDEO

    A Supreme Fact-Check

    The Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority has appealed to history to justify its recent opinions that have eviscerated reproductive freedom, gun control, and affirmative action. With its hard originalist turn, the Court has signaled that more such opinions are in store. But what if the history that the Court has relied on is flat-out wrong?

    Watch Here
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    History & The Constitution

    The Brennan Center is working to change the legal conversation on history and the Constitution, by critiquing the U.S. Supreme Court’s abuses of history and pioneering new ways to use history to protect our constitutional rights.

    Read More