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The Supreme Court is using flawed history to make major decisions and roll back individual rights. Historians are setting the record straight.

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Why It Matters

With its radical originalist turn, the Supreme Court says it is relying on history to resolve some of the most important constitutional questions of our time. Not only does this relatively new method improperly limit Americans’ rights to the outmoded values of 18th-century America, but the history the Court offers is often flat-out wrong.

The Brennan Center is collaborating with historians to push back against the Court’s uses and abuses of history, expose the flawed thinking at the core of toxic originalism, and pioneer new ways of using history to understand our constitutional rights and national values.

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