Legal History

Judge denies last-ditch Kennedy Center bid to delay removing Trump’s name

A federal judge Friday denied the Kennedy Center’s last-ditch motion to delay removing President Donald Trump’s name from the performing arts venue, as crews erected scaffolding next to the building less than 12 hours before the court-ordered deadline to do so.

Jun 12, 2026 3:42 PM CDT

Judge orders Kennedy Center to remove Trump’s name from building

A federal judge Friday ordered that President Donald Trump’s name be removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and that officials halt its plan to close the venue for two years.

May 29, 2026 3:31 PM CDT

Advocacy group sues to stop repainting of landmark DC reflecting pool

An advocacy group asked a federal judge Monday to immediately stop President Donald Trump’s ongoing project to resurface the Lincoln Memorial's reflecting pool and repaint the bottom of the landmark in a bright blue color.

May 12, 2026 10:47 AM CDT

King Charles’ flyover tribute pauses Supreme Court arguments

The U.S. Supreme Court, during a recent hearing about the Alien Tort Statute, paused when Chief Justice John Roberts stopped the courtroom questioning to make an announcement.

May 1, 2026 11:23 AM CDT

After more than a decade, book explores forensic evidence from shooting death of Trayvon Martin

Two Florida-based authors say they’ve researched 11,500 newspaper and journal articles, scoured investigative records and pored over Martin’s autopsy report. They both maintain basic crime scene processes were not followed. Other concerns involve the bullet trajectory, George Zimmerman’s re-enactment of the crime being admitted into evidence and the history of racial tensions in Sanford.

Apr 30, 2026 9:21 AM CDT

These World War II lawyers were heroes of mine

I graduated from the University of Missouri School of Law 50 years ago in May 1976, and I have been a law professor for 40-plus years. During my years as a law student, as an attorney and as a law professor, I have come to regard several attorneys among those I consider my heroes.

Apr 21, 2026 3:28 PM CDT

Majority of Americans find justice system unfair, new survey says

Most Americans continue to be deeply skeptical about the fairness of the justice system, according to a recent survey by Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit organization focusing on careers in public service for lawyers.

Apr 14, 2026 9:28 AM CDT

Supreme Court remade by Trump ushers in historic defeats for civil rights

The sharply conservative Supreme Court that President Donald Trump’s three appointees remade is the first since at least the 1950s to reject civil rights claims in a majority of cases involving women and minorities, according to a detailed analysis conducted for The Washington Post.

Apr 9, 2026 9:42 AM CDT

Shakespeare and the 7 stages of my retirement

On my first day of practice, I bought a leather armchair that I fully intended to use forever. Retirement was something that happened to senior partners, disgruntled lawyers or cranky old judges. Years later, I realized Shakespeare had already mapped it out.

Apr 8, 2026 3:01 PM CDT

University of New Mexico students present heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali as legal champion

Ten years after he died, many still call Muhammad Ali the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. But for students at the University of New Mexico, it’s his championing in the courtroom that made him a knockout.

Apr 2, 2026 2:15 PM CDT

Stolen Treasures: A lawyer and a Holocaust survivor help families find items that Nazis seized decades ago

Sometimes when they are working together at her home, Detroit attorney Jonathan Schwartz brings the deli food while Holocaust survivor Clara Garbon-Radnoti smokes maybe a cigarette or two. For almost two decades, Garbon-Radnoti has been translating documents contained in over 180 digitized, searchable microfilm reels with more than 160,000 frames that were donated to the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Apr 1, 2026 1:50 AM CDT

250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

Some 250 years ago, a group of colonists set about to create change. While hailed as one of the most significant documents in history, the Declaration of Independence was at its core a 27-count indictment against the king of England and a call for application of our natural rights to self-governance. The declaration outlined the various acts and behaviors that infringed on the “unalienable rights.” Before the Second Continental Congress could vote on independence, there was debate. Were they going to fight for rights as British citizens, or were they going to fight for independence from Great Britain?

Apr 1, 2026 1:40 AM CDT

May 15, 1911: Supreme Court orders Standard Oil breakup

John D. Rockefeller was barely 20 when Edwin Drake struck oil in the Pennsylvania town of Titusville in 1859. Drake’s discovery produced an “oil rush” to the area not unlike California’s gold rush 10 years earlier; and Rockefeller, an ambitious bookkeeper working 120 miles west, was looking for a business that would make him rich.

Apr 1, 2026 12:05 AM CDT

Winning From Losing: Attorney who lost Gideon looks back on landmark case and how it reshaped his career

On the day Bruce Jacob came to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue one of the nation’s most significant cases, there was just one person in the public seating area: his wife. Ann Jacob watched her 27-year-old husband stand before the high court for the first time to argue for the state of Florida in the landmark Gideon v. Wainwright case in 1963. The young lawyer faced the imposing Abe Fortas, who later became a Supreme Court justice. Jacob recalls this moment and how it forever changed his life and career, in his new book, The Gideon Case: Inside the Supreme Court’s Historic Right to Counsel Decision. This March marked the 63th anniversary of the court’s decision.

Mar 31, 2026 11:10 AM CDT

Coming to the Bridge and Crossing It: At annual event remembering Bloody Sunday, lawyers share stories

In March, overcast skies seemed to be the only threat staring down marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where 61 years ago, civil rights activists attempting to cross while protesting voting hindrances were beaten by law enforcement. This year at the annual event, known as the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee, clouds did not give way to rain during the march, not that it would have mattered. Determination was in the air.

Mar 25, 2026 2:41 PM CDT