Mia Brett

Mia Brett, PhD, is the Editorial Board's legal historian. She lives with her gorgeous dog, Tchotchke. You can find her @queenmab87.

You’d think debate over public education would be neutral and supported by all. But that’s never been how it works in America

December 27, 2021 /

Who’s in, who’s out – and are they the right kind of American?

If ‘secularists’ are waging war on Christmas, where does that leave the Supreme Court? It said Christmas trees are secular

December 17, 2021 /

They actually serve Christian hegemony in America.

Lose Roe, lose right to privacy

December 9, 2021 /

Abortion, birth control, Internet usage, same-sex marriage, sexual privacy and even healthcare privacy are on the line.

The anti-Roe movement is rooted in the history of chattel slavery

December 1, 2021 /

They are not respecting “life.” They are fearing “race suicide.”

The Rittenhouse verdict isn’t a win for self-defense. It’s another example of white men having better rights than the rest of us

November 24, 2021 /

American history has plenty examples of whole classes of people that were explicitly excluded from claiming self-defense in court.

A 150-year-old anti-Klan law is being used in lawsuit against organizers of Unite the Right

November 18, 2021 /

By using the Ku Klux Klan Act, or the Enforcement Act of 1871, the suit links the alt-right to a century and a half of white violence. 

Kyle Rittenhouse’s actions fit into a long history of state-supported white vigilantism in America

November 15, 2021 /

His defense hopes to capitalize on white panic.

Could Texas’ abortion vigilante law sabotage the open-carry goals of gun-rights groups? Justice Kavanaugh seems worried

November 5, 2021 /

A bizarre twist of fate.

White America likes to pretend antisemitism is a bug, not a feature. The history of Jews in America tells a different story

October 28, 2021 /

Marginalization, systemic violence and discrimination.

What is gerrymandering and why does a democracy allow it to be used to protect white power?

October 21, 2021 /

A legal history of congressional district map-making.