Kate Masur

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Constitution's grant of birthright citizenship was limited to "newly freed slaves and their children."

This 🧵⬇️from @sam-breidbart.bsky.social explains how the amicus brief from @marthasjones.bsky.social and @katemasur.bsky.social demolishes that argument...

"The framers [of the 14th Amendment] constitutionalized the universal view of birthright citizenship that free Black Americans advanced and the common law guaranteed."

@marthasjones.bsky.social and @katemasur.bsky.social provide a powerful history lesson in the form of a legal brief

1/ @marthasjones.bsky.social and @katemasur.bsky.social have drafted a seminal brief: (a) that centers Black American beliefs on birthright citizenship and (b) uses a set of primary sources, such as speeches and Colored Conventions, fought for (and won) broad birthright citizenship for everyone.

NEW: Profs. Martha Jones and @brennancenter.org Historians Council Member Kate Masur filed an amicus brief in the upcoming Supreme Court case involving Trump’s attempt to unconstitutionally strip birthright citizenship 🧵

Today @marthasjones.bsky.social & Historians Council Member @katemasur.bsky.social filed a brief in the SCOTUS case challenging President Trump’s birthright citizenship order. Jones and Masur debunk the claim the 14th Amendment applies only to “newly freed slaves.”

Powerful new SCOTUS brief from the lawyers defending birthright citizenship (@aclu.org @legaldefensefund.bsky.social @asianlawcaucus.org @democracydefendersfund.org)

As they lay out, Trump's EO is nothing less than an attempt to rewrite the Constitution.

👀➡️ www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...

Thanks! Hope you enjoy it.

Holy cow, what a lineup. Check out this special issue:

Honored to be part of this special issue!

My essay, "Empathy, Humility, and Good Faith: Studying History in Times of Crisis," explores the ways I have been thinking about this question both as a historian and teacher, and as Josie's mom and advocate: muse.jhu.edu/pub/12/artic....

Thanks, Mark.

This issue is 🔥

What Is To Be Done? Historians of Crisis in a Moment of Crisis a special Issue of @jcwe.bsky.social is available to READ FOR FREE now on @projectmuse.bsky.social.

18 Civil War–era historians reflect on scholarship, teaching & today’s political crisis. Read it now👇

muse.jhu.edu/journal/516

Now available for free! Please check out this important special issue. Now more than ever, the Civil War era provides us with important lessons for our harrowing current moment

Don't Delay -- Apply TODAY for one of the 2026-2027 Predoctoral Fellowships!

Deadline for submitting application packet is March 1, 2026!

Please help share this amazing opportunity to be a part of the Richards Center Community!!

richardscenter.la.psu.edu/fellowships/...

@jamellebouie.net
A terrific explanation of the institutional power of slavery before the civil war, but also the power of individual choice in combatting it.
Great job analyzing the historical scholarship, but also calling out books by @katemasur.bsky.social & @profmsinha.bsky.social

My friend @gowder.io and his colleagues are brilliant and unflinching here. I’m sorry to be late to it but this is an outstanding piece of critical analysis that has lessons well beyond the current debate over birthright citizenship.

publications.lawschool.cornell.edu/lawreview/20...

Historians @marthasjones.bsky.social and @katemasur.bsky.social filed a critical brief on birthright citizenship in the circuit courts, showing how the story of free Black Americans' advocacy unravels the admin's lead justification for its executive order.

www.brennancenter.org/media/14006/...

Birthright citizenship has been a core constitutional guarantee for ages.

If you're just tuning into the discourse now, check out our panel with expert historians @marthasjones.bsky.social @katemasur.bsky.social and Erika Lee: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QCI... @brennancenter.org

Collaborating with the Park Service – AHA When the National Park Service moved to incorporate Reconstruction into its historical interpretation, it was with the help of academic historians.

With news that NPS is implementing an EO by deleting info about slavery and climate change, I thought I'd share this article, where Greg Downs & I describe our experience w/NPS's commitment to good history. This is precisely what the admin is trying to destroy. www.historians.org/perspectives...

Collaborating with the Park Service – AHA When the National Park Service moved to incorporate Reconstruction into its historical interpretation, it was with the help of academic historians.

With news that NPS is implementing an EO by deleting info about slavery and climate change, I thought I'd share this article, where Greg Downs & I describe our experience w/NPS's commitment to good history. This is precisely what the admin is trying to destroy. www.historians.org/perspectives...

Here are the signs the Trump administration removed from Independence Park Following last year’s review, every sign has been removed from the President’s House site.

Look at this: @inquirer.com has digitally preserved the interpretative signage removed by NPS, and used annotations to explain what specifically was flagged before removal. This keeps the content publicly accessible (for now) while doing newsworthy reporting
www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

Death by Lightning - An Ode to Service - The Journal of the Civil War Era In his inaugural speech on March 4, 1881, newly elected President James Garfield emphasized the importance of ongoing Reconstruction, asserting that the “elevation of the negro race from slavery to th...

Here’s a great piece on @netflix.com’s series “Death by Lightning” by the outstanding Historian and National Park Ranger @richcondon.bsky.social. He’s kind enough to mention my name and cite my book in this review of the series for @scwhistorians.bsky.social’s Journal of the Civil War Era.

I'm sure Bouie has read this, but for those interested in the kinds of details this testimony revealed, I strongly recommend:

Kidada E. Williams, I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023).

Jan. 6 and the Long Shadow of Civil War- and Reconstruction-Era Political Violence Two days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, we...

Kate Masur and Greg Downs break it down. A must-read.

Jan. 6 and the Long Shadow of Civil War- and Reconstruction-Era Political Violence talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/jan-6-a...

9th Year since losing my mother, labor lawyer & reproductive rights pioneer Beatrice K. Braun. Please learn her story in my A Woman’s Life is a Human Life @groveatlantic.bsky.social @amyhundley.bsky.social @darakaye.bsky.social @katemasur.bsky.social @serenamayeri.bsky.social @kmtani.bsky.social

Remembering Reconstruction’s Lost Generation - The Journal of the Civil War Era Benjamin Franklin Randolph was part of a generation that changed the nation’s political history. Born free and raised in Ohio, he attended Oberlin College and after graduating he served as a principal...

In today's Muster @robertdbland.bsky.social examines the legacy of the Reconstruction generation www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2026/01/reme...

Jan. 6 and the Long Shadow of Civil War- and Reconstruction-Era Political Violence Two days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, we...

ICYMI @jcwe.bsky.social editors @katemasur.bsky.social and Gregory Downs discuss January 6 and the legacy of Civil War-era violence with @talkingpointsmemo.com talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/jan-6-a...

Thanks to @talkingpointsmemo.com for the terrific suite of articles on what Jan. 6 really was. Here's the report Greg Downs and I wrote for the J6 committee, in which we cast that day's events -- and the response to them -- as part of a very long struggle over democracy in the United States

Death by Lightning - An Ode to Service - The Journal of the Civil War Era In his inaugural speech on March 4, 1881, newly elected President James Garfield emphasized the importance of ongoing Reconstruction, asserting that the “elevation of the negro race from slavery to th...

In today's Muster, @richcondon.bsky.social explores the recent Netflix series Death by Lightning and its portrait of James Garfield as the last "Lincoln Republican" www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/12/deat...

Thanks to @talkingpointsmemo.com for the terrific suite of articles on what Jan. 6 really was. Here's the report Greg Downs and I wrote for the J6 committee, in which we cast that day's events -- and the response to them -- as part of a very long struggle over democracy in the United States