History & the Constitution

A group of 4 voting rights historians represented by Mayer Brown LLP and the Yale Law School Supreme Court Clinic have filed a brief in Nairne v. Landry, an appeal involving Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).

A group of 4 voting rights historians represented by Mayer Brown LLP and the Yale Law School Supreme Court Clinic have filed a brief in Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. et al. v. Secretary of State of Georgia, an appeal involving Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).

A group of 15 founding era historians represented by the Brennan Center and Friedman Kaplan Seiler Adelman LLP have filed a brief challenging Trump’s claim of immunity.

The Brennan Center and historians challenged abuses of history in cases threatening Chevron Deference.

Multiple experts discuss the faults with high court justices claiming “history” provides a legitimate foundation their rulings.

A guide to amicus filings from historians in a critical year at the high court.

Judges of all stripes say “history and tradition” can’t guide decision-making.

Here are some of the most significant amicus fillings historians have made during the Court’s recent terms.

Relying on the radical and meritless “independent state legislature” theory, North Carolina legislators are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate gerrymandered congressional maps that the state supreme court struck down for violating the state constitution.

New York and a coalition of 20 states, cities and localities led a challenge to President Trump’s attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from the state-population totals that are produced by the 2020 Census and used for apportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and votes in the Electoral College.

Common Cause, the North Carolina Democratic Party, and a group of North Carolina voters filed a lawsuit, Common Cause v. Rucho, raising partisan gerrymandering allegations over the state’s 2016 remedial congressional map.

The State of New York led a coalition of states, cities, and mayors in a successful challenge to the Commerce Department’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

A group of Wisconsin residents challenged a 2011 state assembly redistricting plan as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.

On May 20, the Brennan Center filed a brief supporting the plaintiffs’ opposition to the motion to dismiss. The case was formerly known as Shapiro v. McManus.