“Since last October, the families of every fallen soldier have been offered post-mortem sperm retrieval.”
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Inside the Christian Legal Campaign to Return Prayer to Public Schools
“A fight over prayer in schools in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, offers a glimpse into what more school districts around the country may face.”
The Mercy Workers
“For three decades, a little-known group of ‘mitigation specialists’ has helped save death-penalty defendants by documenting their childhood traumas. A rare look inside one case.”
Love Wins
“Two women promised they would see the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time once they were together. They had no idea how long that would take.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This edition features stories from Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski, Michael Hall, Ben Goldfarb, Meg Bernhard, and Angela Burke.
Trump’s Killing Spree: The Inside Story of His Race to Execute Every Prisoner He Could
“Before 2020, there had been three federal executions in 60 years. Then Trump put 13 people to death in six months.”
Democratic Leaders Are Getting the Abortion Story Wrong — Again
Rebecca Traister skewers national Democrats for failing time and again to say and do the right thing when it comes to reproductive rights, contributing to the moment at which America now finds itself — on the doorstep of Roe v Wade’s reversal: Schumer and Pelosi’s bizarre assertion that this looming rollback of rights was emblematic […]
Anatomy of Absolute Power
The people of Wilcox County, Alabama, remember a longtime sheriff as a god or a monster—it just depends on who you ask.
Looking for Clarence Thomas
He grew up speaking a language of the enslaved on the shores of Pin Point, Georgia. He would become the most powerful Black man in America, using the astonishing power vested in a Supreme Court justice to hold back his own people. Now he sits atop an activist right-wing court poised to undo the progressivism […]
The Death Chamber Doctor’s Dilemma
A law went into effect in South Carolina last year allowing people on death row to choose their method of execution, including by firing squad. Last week, the state supreme court issued a temporary stay on government-sponsored killing, in advance of executions scheduled for April 29 and May 13. As we wait to learn whether […]

