Voting Rights: Taking an Afternoon Off to Vote
Voting rights remain a topic for many Americans who falsely believe voter fraud occurs. I give money to Let America Vote, an organization started by Jason Kander, to try to defend voting rights in...
Category: My Democratic Faith
The Alien and Sedition Acts, Donald Trump, and Facing Criticism
220 years ago, Congress passed the first of what would become known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. The government argued that these measure became necessary for national security. War with France seemed imminent...
Journeymen Cordwainers, Unions, and Compelled Speech
On July 12, 1810, a trial of trade unionists began in New York City. In 1794, Philadelphia shoemakers organized the “Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers.” Similarly New York bootmakers joined. In 1805, the union struck in Philadelphia for...
Samuel Adams, Vilification, and Vulnerable Oppositions
As we continuously discuss loyalty, partisanship, and civility, we forget how our Founders acted illegally, angered many, and defied the power-that-be. Samuel Adams organized and directed people to revolt against the King. Although loyalists...
Welcome to Twenty Years of a Strike Down Supreme Court
I restarted this blog last year to try to focus some nervous energy and sadness into something positive. I wanted to showcase what liberty and American values should look like. Through that research, I...
Bosque Redondo and The Long Walk
The Treaty of Bosque Redondo between the United States and many of the Navajo leaders was concluded at Fort Sumner on June 1, 1868. The treaty allowed the Navajo to return to a small portion...
Fong Yue Ting, David J. Brewer, and Imperfections
Although Justice Douglas wrote that “racism as a constitutional principle was emphatically rejected” in Yick Wo, he noted that on May 15, 1893, the Supreme Court provided a dark day for resident aliens. However, in discussing...
1882 Immigration Act and the Statue of Liberty
Although America has always been a land of immigrants, the people who currently live in its borders love to try to keep others out. In the nineteenth century, many people who had low or...
Rural Electrification Administration and Broadband
President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote on May 11, 1935, “I hereby establish an agency within the Government to be known as the Rural Electrification Administration…to initiate, formulate, administer, and supervise a program of approved...
Yick Wo, Plessey, and the Fourteenth Amendment
On May 10, 1998, the Supreme Court set aside the conviction of Yick Wo. San Francisco had passed an ordinance that required laundry operators to obtain licenses. The city argued they needed to ensure...
