Category Archives: Legal history

On Historical Advocacy and the Supreme Court

Posted on August 7, 2025 by briansandberg

“As the Supreme Court’s decisions increasingly turn on their understanding of the distant past, the number of supporting briefs from historians has exploded and their influence has grown,” according to Adam Liptak, who has published an article in The New … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic Freedom, Civil Rights Issues, History in the Media, Legal history, Political History of the United States, United States History and Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Academic Presses Making Deals with AI Companies

Posted on July 30, 2025 by briansandberg

I am alarmed to discover that Johns Hopkins University Press, one of the leading academic presses in the world is making deals with AI companies to license their titles to “train” LLMs. Here is an urgent question for friends who … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic Freedom, Academic Publishing, Civil Rights Issues, Digital Humanities, Higher Education, History of the Book, Human Rights, Humanities Education, Information Management, Legal history, United States History and Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Trump Blocks International Students Going to Harvard

Posted on May 22, 2025 by briansandberg

The Trump administration is launching a new attack on Harvard University, one of the premier private academic institutions in the United States. The New York Times reports that “The Trump administration on Thursday halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic Freedom, Civil Rights Issues, Education Policy, Higher Education, Human Rights, Legal history, Political History of the United States, United States History and Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

International Students at NIU Feel Targeted

Posted on April 20, 2025 by briansandberg

International students across the nation are being targeted and terrorized by the Trump administration, threatening their access to higher education and violating their civil rights and human rights. “The Trump administration is revoking the visas of International students across the … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic Freedom, Civil Rights Issues, Graduate Work in History, Grants and Fellowships, Higher Education, Human Rights, Humanities Education, Legal history, Northern Illinois University, Political History of the United States, Strategy and International Politics, Study Abroad, United States History and Society, World History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Research Model of the United States is Threatened

Posted on April 16, 2025 by briansandberg

The entire research model of the United States is threatened with destruction. “Around the time of World War II, the U.S. government started funding universities for the purpose of aiding the war effort, funneling money toward medical research, innovation and … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic Freedom, Civil Rights Issues, Education Policy, Grants and Fellowships, Higher Education, Human Rights, Legal history, Political History of the United States, United States History and Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Whistleblower Exposes DOGE’s Unlawful Hacking

Posted on April 16, 2025 by briansandberg

A federal worker who works in Information Technology (IT) at the National Labor Relations Board has made a whistleblower complaint to the U.S. Congress, exposing unlawful hacking and data exfiltration by Elon Musk’s DOGE team. “In the first days of … Continue reading →

Posted in Authoritarianism, Civil Rights Issues, Digital Humanities, Human Rights, Information Management, Legal history, Political History of the United States, United States History and Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Harvard University Resists Trump Administration

Posted on April 14, 2025 by briansandberg

Universities are beginning to push back on the Trump administration’s war on research and higher education. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and other scholarly associations have filed a … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic Freedom, Civil Rights Issues, Education Policy, Grants and Fellowships, Higher Education, History of Race and Racism, Human Rights, Humanities Education, Legal history, Political History of the United States, Public History, United States History and Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Trump Officials Remove Books from Libraries

Posted on April 14, 2025 by briansandberg

The Trump administration continues its war on knowledge by removing books from the U.S. Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered staff to remove 381 books from the Nimitz Library. The books removed include novels by Maya … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic Freedom, Civil Rights Issues, Civil-Military Relations, Education Policy, Higher Education, History of Race and Racism, Human Rights, Humanities Education, Information Management, Legal history, Museums and Historical Memory, Political Culture, Political History of the United States, Public History, United States History and Society, Women and Gender History | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Many International Students’ Visas Revoked in Illinois

Posted on April 14, 2025 by briansandberg

International students at state universities in Illinois and across the nation are being improperly and unlawfully targeted by the Trump administration for visa revocation. Last week, the Trump administration revoked the visas of five international students at Northern Illinois University, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic Freedom, Authoritarianism, Civil Rights Issues, Education Policy, Globalization, Higher Education, Human Rights, Illinois History and Society, Legal history, Political Culture, Political History of the United States, United States Foreign Policy, United States History and Society | Leave a comment

Historians Address the Attacks on Education in the U.S.

Posted on April 5, 2025 by briansandberg

The Organization of American Historians (OAH) is meeting in Chicago this week and many historians have been addressing the Trump administration’s attacks on education in the United States. The OAH is the premier academic association of historians who work on … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic Freedom, Authoritarianism, Civil Rights Issues, Democracy, Higher Education, History in the Media, Human Rights, Humanities Education, Legal history, Political History of the United States, Public History, The Past Alive: Teaching History, United States History and Society | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment