When Aaron Burr left the office of vice president in March 1805, his future was clouded.  President Jefferson had dropped him from the Republican ticket the year before, then Burr lost a race for governor of New York.  Winning his famous duel with Alexander Hamilton, former Secretary of the Treasury, landed Burr under indictment for…

John Q. Barrett is a law professor at St. John’s in New York and a scholar of Justice Robert Jackson (pictured below).  He produces periodic e-mails about Justice Jackson that are often fascinating.  His most recent message deals with Jackson’s exchange with Judge Charles Wyzanski over the legitimacy of the Nuremburg trials of Nazi leaders…

In honor of the debt-ceiling drama playing out here in Washington, Time Magazine has put together a list of Top 10 Government Showdowns in American history.  I was initially delighted that the subjects of all three of my books made the list (indicated below).  Then I started wondering about the quality of the list, and…

What better way to prepare for the Fourth of July, which celebrates Thomas Jefferson’s brilliant Declaration of Independence, than to reflect on the never-ending dispute over whether Jefferson fathered from one to four children borne by his slave, Sally Hemings. The accusation began with a scandal-mongering newsman in 1802.  James Callender, a Scot, had been…

As we enter the presidential campaign season, pity the Founding Fathers.  Among the recent incantations of the Founding Fathers by Republican hopefuls, we find: Mitt Romney, with characteristic vagueness, launched his campaign by “hailing” the Founding Fathers (attaboy, fathers!). Michelle Bachmann was delighted to proclaim that the Founding Fathers ended slavery (boy, is Abe Lincoln…