Law & Policy

The U.S. government ordered 120,000 people of Japanese descent, most American citizens, imprisoned during World War II. An admission of wrongdoing and reparations payments came decades later, but a Supreme Court ruling had lasting impact.

The Supreme Court considers new arguments challenging admissions practices that colleges use to select a diverse student body.

Since the summer of 2020, we’ve documented the impact of the pandemic on housing and evictions. We followed tenants, landlords, lawyers, judges, sheriffs and social workers across the U.S. who were affected.

Since the summer of 2020, we’ve documented the impact of the pandemic on housing and evictions. We followed tenants, landlords, lawyers, judges, sheriffs and social workers across the U.S. who were affected. Facing Eviction airs on PBS Frontline on July 26 at 10/9c.

What obligation does the United States have toward people who are uprooted by war?

Today’s heated political arguments over censorship and misinformation online are rooted in a 26-word snippet of a law that created the Internet as we know it.

The ‘Burning Bed’ killing put domestic violence in the headlines.

Anger over policing and inequality boiled over in 1967 in protests and violence across the United States. A landmark report warned that without major changes, it would happen again.

The Equal Rights Amendment, proposed nearly 100 years ago, sparked debate from its very beginning, even among many of the women who had worked together for suffrage.

Migrant children in federal custody have tested positive for Covid-19, reopening a legal battle over the rights of children in custody.

A whistleblower case from 2010 reveals the peril faced by whistleblowers seeking to expose wrongdoing.

Today’s immigration policies echo an anti-immigration movement 25 years ago in California.

About half a million children have dangerously high lead levels in their blood, mostly from exposure to peeling paint and contaminated dust. The fight over who should clean it up has lasted for decades.

DNA information that is available on genealogy websites is doing more than satisfying curiosity – it’s solving crimes.

An international treaty laid out the basics of space law in 1967. But without a lot of case history to go on, lawyers today have looked to maritime law and Arctic exploration as they lay the groundwork for how space will be governed.

White evangelical Christians are among President Trump’s most important supporters. But more than 40 years ago, they were on the margins of American politics.

The Supreme Court has reversed Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion. We tell the story of the Jane Collective, which provided thousands of illegal abortions from 1969 to 1973.

In the 1980s, the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan and the shooting of his press secretary, Jim Brady, led to the Brady Bill. Decades later, are there lessons from that fight for the Parkland students?

As police have become more militarized, the role of SWAT teams has morphed – from use in emergency situations to fighting the drug war.

During his campaign, Donald Trump vowed not to cut to entitlements, but then reversed himself saying he would, and additionally would turn more control over to the states. We take a look at what happened to another entitlement, welfare, when the states took over.

Guantanamo Bay has become a symbol of the war on terror, but its story actually begins a decade before, when it was first used to detain thousands of Haitians outside the reach of U.S. law. This story was created in collaboration with NPR and PBS, FRONTLINE.

Twenty years ago, welfare reform was signed into law, promising needy families a path out of poverty. This is the story of Tianna Gaines-Turner, a former welfare recipient, who still struggles to make ends meet.

Bill Clinton’s 1996 welfare reform was supposed to move needy families off government handouts and onto a path out of poverty. Twenty years later, how has it turned out?

From time to time over the past 40 years, efforts were made to treat heroin addiction as a public health instead of a crime problem. But they were not successful.

S.W.A.T. teams, specially trained police teams, have been used increasingly in routine matters like serving drug warrants, sometimes with disastrous results.

In the 1980s, many government officials, scientists, and journalists warned that the country would be plagued by a generation of “crack babies.” They were wrong. More than 25 years later, the media is sounding a similar alarm.

In 1993, federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and generated a legacy that continues to shape antigovernment groups today.

A 1993 E. coli outbreak linked Jack in the Box hamburgers sickened 700 people and acted as a wake up call about the dangers of food-borne illness. Decades later, how far have we really come in terms of food safety?

In the 1990s, the federal government reintroduced the gray wolf to Yellowstone National Park. It was considered a big success. And that’s when the real fight began.

The controversy over Terri Schiavo’s case elevated a family matter into a political battle that continues to frame end-of-life issues today.