Thanks to all who joined the 14th Amendment Center for our seminars on birthright citizenship last week. Kudos to seminar faculty MarthaJones, @katemasur.bsky.social, Robert Chang at @korematsuctr.bsky.social,Jessica Levin at Seattle Law & Bethany Li @aaldef.bsky.social @howardlawschool.bsky.social

Our founder @sifill.bsky.social delivered the keynote at @howard.edu’s 158th Convocation & received the Presidential Medal of Achievement. She reminded students: “It’s planting time… we have the duty to remake democracy.” Watch her full remarks www.youtube.com/live/1YedCX5...

#OnThisDay in 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act is signed into law as part of the Compromise of 1850. You can view a printing block that was used to advertise runaway slaves in newspapers in our exhibit #CivilWarAndReconstruction. Credit: Courtesy of Angelo Scarlato

Last night the 14th Amend Ctr had a terrific opening session on birthright citizenship w/historians Martha Jones & @kate.masur.TONIGHT is Part Two w/a great line-up of scholars & advocates. It’s not too late to register. howard.zoom.us/webinar/regi... @aaldef.bsky.social @korematsuctr.bsky.social

Are you ready? Class is about to be in session. howard.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Bluesky's chief operating officer, @rose.bsky.team, tells The Times the platform is going strong but engagement is more important than user numbers or monetising

There are a few more showings this month of “Becoming Thurgood.”Check your public television station schedule. Marylanders, MPT is showing it at 7pm tonight.

TONIGHT on PBS: Becoming Thurgood Marshall: America’s Social Architect premieres at 10ET/9C. The film traces the life + legacy of the nation’s first Black SCOTUS justice, with never-before-heard interviews + insights from civil rights leaders + scholars, including our founder @sifill.bsky.social

Have you registered for the free webinar on birthright citizenship yet? It’s time to learn what’s at stake. We cannot protect it if we don’t understand it. howard.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

“On September 8, 1910, the Texas House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution encouraging U.S. senators and congressmen to work toward repealing the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to Black people born in the U.S.” calendar.eji.org/racial-injus...

We’re proud to launch The Refounding, the 14th Amendment Center’s new newsletter! Stay connected with legal updates, scholarship & events that illuminate the past, present & future of the 14th Amendment. Read the first installment written by our founder @sifill.bsky.social medium.com/@TheRefoundi...

Keep demanding more and better from our country. Let the promise of the 14th Amendment, and the vision of its framers, guide you.

Who was Albert Pike? A General in the Confederate Army. Later described as “the chief judicial officer of the KKK.” Declared, “the white race, & that race alone, shall govern this country. It is the only one fit to govern, and it is the only one that shall.” www.npr.org/2025/08/05/n...

BREAKING: Finding that “the only way to afford complete relief to the certified class is to enjoin enforcement of the [birthright citizenship EO]” (& w/specific reference to the concerns of Justice Alito), the fed district court in MD granted a nationwide injunction against enforcement of EO 14160.

Today SCOTUS ordered the parties in the Louisiana racial redistricting case to submit briefing on the question of whether the creation of majority-Black districts in order to comply w/ Sec. 2 of the Voting Rights Act violates the 14th & 15th Amendments. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

Truly fine article refuting fly-by-night restrictive theories of birthright citizenship and false historical narratives. Weaving in the destructive Dunning School of Reconstruction scholars who perpetuated Lost Cause narratives is brilliant & sobering. bsky.app/profile/anth...

Yes, the First Amendment protects noncitizens, too—and this has been the law for eighty years, even if many people are suddenly pretending it’s an open question. www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/07/aaup...

This is scandalous. The El Paso SPC is one of the few ICE detention centers owned by ICE itself. Members of Congress cannot legally be turned away from ICE facilities when conducting oversight. Yet these emails say Noem herself is deciding when and how Members can conduct oversight.

I am gratified to see that the @nytimes.com has changed the copy to accurately affirm the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07...

Wow.

A Mississippi sheriff’s department came under fire two years ago after a group of deputies known as the Goon Squad admitted to torturing people. Our reporting shows federal authorities had evidence of problems at the department for years but rarely chose to act.

Four former corrections officers at a West Virginia jail were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three years to more than two decades for their roles in the fatal beating of an inmate there three years ago, prosecutors said.

The FBI is said to be using lie detectors to test employees’ loyalty, asking some whether they have criticized Kash Patel.

@nytimes.com Change this. Birthright citizenship has been the law of our country for 157 years per the explicit language of the 14th amendment t to the Constitution.

Yesterday marked 157 years since the #14thAmendment was ratified—guaranteeing birthright citizenship, equal protection, and due process. Our founder, @sifill.bsky.social, curated a list of essential books and films to explore the history and lasting power of the 14th Amendment.

BREAKING: www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

A wonderful morning yesterday at Bank Street College of Education in NY, teaching educators about the 14th Amendment and seeing a wonderful play by young actors about censorship in the classroom. Thanks to Amy Stuart Wells, Basil Smile & the team at the Building Education & Democracy Conference.

Organized, robust, discussions of democracy were taking place as post Civil War amendments were added to the Constitution. We love hearing how Colored Conventions counter the majority’s take on originalism + its limits by @jamellebouie.net @dahlialithwick.bsky.social and @sifill.bsky.social

On the Amicus podcast, we discussed Justice Brown Jackson’s dissent in Medina v. South Carolina, which cited the Colored Conventions to define “rights.” We were honored to host @ccp-org.bsky.social's P. Gabrielle Foreman at our March symposium on this history. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

LISTEN: I spoke last night with @chrislhayes.bsky.social about the practical & chilling effect of the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v Casa, lifting the nationwide injunction that stopped the enforcement of the Executive Order that violates the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship clause.

Read Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's full dissenting opinion in #trumpvcasa SCOTUS case on #birthrightcitizenship here: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

“I do not give the [Supreme Court] any credit for not mentioning birthright citizenship, because it was their way of avoiding the consequences of the decision they chose to make today.” —Our founder, @sifill.bsky.social , on the #TrumpvCasa decision with @cnn.com’s Anderson Cooper.

The theory that now that the challenges to Trump’s birthright citizenship EO will proceed as class actions they will make their way quickly to the SCOTUS & be decided forthwith (Justice Kavanaugh’s claim) is, in my view, not likely. I explain why on @andersoncooper360.bsky.social.

Here's a closer look at the Supreme Court's decision to punt a case on Louisiana’s congressional map to next term

Interesting analysis of Trump v Casa from @cristianfarias.com www.vanityfair.com/news/story/s...

Groups have been preparing since oral argument in Trump v Casa.Class actions (aggregated claims by multiple parties) are already being filed. We’ll be posting the complaints here. Here’s one filed in federal district court in New Hampshire. assets.aclu.org/live/uploads...

Prof. @sifill.bsky.social, Founder of the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy, shares her statement on the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Casa. You can read the full SCOTUS decision here: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

The Ku Klux Klan Acts (passed in 1870 & 1871 to protect 14th amend rights) were particularly focused on masked gunmen who violated the civil rights of Black people. We should remember this history when masked law enforcement ofcrs are deployed in our communities. open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

Not just Texas. “Efforts were indeed made to hold the negro in his old state of subjection.” In multiple states “planters succeeded for a limited period to keep their former slaves in ignorance,or at least doubt about their new rights.” -Carl Schurz, Report on Conditions in the South (1865)

“There is a vast chasm between the concept of freedom inscribed on paper and the reality of freedom in our lives.” Revisit Jelani Cobb‘s piece, from 2020, on Juneteenth and the meaning of freedom.

It’s Juneteenth.

Today’s decision in the Skrmetti case continues this majority’s tortured counter-factual reading of the 14th Amendment to restrict equal protection guarantees for those most vulnerable.Their opinions create a world that supports their preferred outcome. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Frederick Douglass visited Arlington House - Robert E. Lee’s plantation in Dec. 1863.It was in ruins. Douglass’ observations were, as always, powerful. No romance for Lee or the Confederacy. Stark truth. Here’s Douglass writes to a friend about what he saw, & how he felt. www.nps.gov/arho/learn/h...

Registered! Should be great.

The SCOTUS should make clear in deciding Trump v Casa that whatever the perils of nationwide injunctions, the attempt to carve out exceptions to birthright citizenship are without merit. To do otherwise is to invite further attempts to disrespect the 14th amend by this or other Administrations.

If I had to recommend one from among the good amicus briefs filed in the birthright citizenship case, I’d go w/the one filed on behalf of Prof. Jack Chin, longtime scholar of immigration issues including birthright citizenship in the context of Asian Americans. www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24...

You know you’re on to something when law graduates spontaneously applaud the mere mention of the 14th Amendment & get even more worked up about the birthright citizenship clause. What a joy to give the commencement address at Univ of Maryland Law School. Thank you Dean Hutchins & @marylandcareylaw .

Want to be a civil rights lawyer? You have to be a master strategist. Here’s @legaldefensefund.bsky.social leader Thurgood Marshall on the day Brown was decided talking about the 5 point plan they’ve already drawn up to expand the scope of the decision to all aspects of life in the South.