As the U.S. has grown through its history and adapted to new circumstances, so, too, has the judicial branch. Its history suggests that it will continue to do so into the future.

Even though the Supreme Court does not resolve a large proportion of the cases that are presented to it, the decisions it does issue reverberate to affect many other disputes through the principle of precedent. Its decisions on a handful of cases can, over time, expand and contract the rights of the entire nation.

For many voters, 2020 may have been their first experience with voting by mail. However, VBM in both the United States and Utah specifically is not new. In America, VBM has a history that spans centuries.

The judiciary branch is designed as a responsive, not proactive, branch of government. The court can’t tell Congress not to pass an unconstitutional law or tell the president not to issue a legally invalid order. It must wait until after those actions take effect and someone challenges them.

In a Q&A with Sutherland’s Derek Monson, Bill Mattox of the James Madison Institute explains his Celebrate Freedom curriculum, which has reached over a million Florida high school students.

It’s difficult to understand historical events critical to the modern American civic fabric – such as the Civil War and Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – without first understanding Dred Scott, a Supreme Court ruling in 1857.

Last week, the court announced it would hear another case involving a claim of unequal treatment.

Recently, Illinois became the first state to enact legislation that would protect the ability of people of faith to participate in school athletics (both in high school and college) without having to abandon their commitment to live consistent with standards of their faith.

The specific question the court will consider is whether states are permitted by the U.S. Constitution to allow abortions prior to viability. In the background, however, is a much more significant question: whether the nearly 50-year-old decision by the court in Roe v. Wade should be abandoned.

Thinking beyond race – do our worries about things like the health of our democracy stem solely from the arguments, beliefs or tactics of our political opponents, or are they driven by elements of our own personal political perspectives?