Columns

The legacy of slavery in America remains a divisive issue, with sharp political divides.

(THE CONVERSATION) — The legacy of slavery in America remains a divisive issue, with sharp political divides.

Some argue that slavery still contributes to modern economic inequalities. Others believe its effects have largely faded.

One way to measure the legacy of slavery is to determine whether the disproportionate riches of slaveholders have been passed down to their present-day descendants.

Connecting the wealth of a slaveholder in the 1860s to today’s economic conditions is not easy. Doing so requires unearthing data for a large number of people on slaveholder ancestry, current wealth and other factors such as age and education.

But in a new study, we tackled this challenge by focusing on one of the few groups of Americans for whom such information exists: members of Congress. We found that legislators who are descendants of slaveholders are significantly wealthier than members of Congress without slaveholder ancestry.

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How slavery made the South rich

In 1860, one year before the Civil War, the market value of U.S. slaves was larger than that of all American railroads and factories.

At the time of emancipation in 1863, the estimated value of all enslaved people was roughly US$13 trillion in today’s dollars. The lower Mississippi Valley had more millionaires, all of them slaveholders, than anywhere else in the country.

Some post-Civil War historians have argued that emancipation permanently devastated slave-owning families.

More recently, however, historians discovered that, while the South fell behind the North economically immediately following emancipation, many elite slaveholders recovered financially within one or two generations.

They accomplished this by replacing slavery with sharecropping – a kind of indentured servitude that trapped Black farm workers in debt to white landowners – and enacting discriminatory Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation.

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100 descendants of slaveholders

Using genealogist-verified historical data and financial data from annual congressional disclosures, we examined members of the 117th Congress, which was in session from January 2021 to January 2023.

Of its 535 members, 100 were descendants of slaveholders, including Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Legislators whose ancestors were large slaveholders – defined in our study as owning 16 or more slaves– have a current median net worth five times larger than their peers whose ancestors were not slaveholders: $5.6 million vs. $1.1 million. These results remained largely the same after accounting for age, race and education.

Wealth creates many privileges – the means to start a business or pursue higher education. And intergenerational wealth transfers can allow these advantages to persist across generations.

Because members of Congress are a highly select group, our results may not apply to all Americans. However, the findings align with other studies on the transfers of wealth and privilege across generations in the U.S. and Europe.

Wealth, these studies find, often stays within rich families across multiple generations. Mechanisms for holding onto wealth include low estate taxes and access to elite social networks and schools. Easy entry into powerful jobs and political influence also play a part.

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Privilege with power

But members of Congress do not just inherit wealth and advantages.

They shape the lives of all Americans. They decide how to allocate federal funds, set tax rates and create regulations.

This power is significant. And for those whose families benefited from slavery, it can perpetuate economic policies that maintain wealth inequality.

Beyond inherited wealth, the legacy of slavery endures in policies enacted by those in power – by legislators who may be less likely to prioritize reforms that challenge the status quo.

COVID-19 relief legislation, for example, helped reduce child poverty by more than 70% while bringing racial inequalities in child poverty to historic lows. Congress failed to renew the program in 2022, plunging 5 million more children into poverty, most of them Black and Latino.

The economic deprivation still experienced by Black Americans is the flip side of the privilege enjoyed by slaveowners’ descendants. The median household wealth of white Americans today is six times higher than that of Black Americans – $285,000 versus $45,000.

Meanwhile, federal agencies that enforce antidiscrimination laws remain underfunded. This limits their ability to address racial disparities.

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The path forward

As the enduring economic disparities rooted in slavery become clearer, a growing number of states and municipalities are weighing some form of practical and financial compensation for the descendants of enslaved people.

Yet surveys show that most Americans oppose such reparations for slavery. Similarly, Congress has debated slavery reparations many times but never passed a bill.

There are, however, other ways to improve opportunities for historically disadvantaged populations that could gain bipartisan backing.

A majority of Americans, both conservatives and liberal, support increased funding for environmental hazard screening, which assesses the potential impact of a proposed project. They also favor limits on rent increases, better public school funding and raising taxes on the wealthy.

These measures would help dismantle the structural barriers that perpetuate economic disparities. And the role of Congress here is central.

Members of Congress do not bear personal responsibility for their ancestors’ actions. But they have an opportunity to address both the legacies of past injustices and today’s inequalities.

By doing so, they can help create a future where ancestral history does not determine economic destiny.

In just about any discussion of a poll about the very close presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, you’ll hear the phrase “within the poll’s margin of error.”

By Doug Schwartz
Quinnipiac University

(THE CONVERSATION) — In just about any discussion of a poll about the very close presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, you’ll hear the phrase “within the poll’s margin of error.” Those words signal that it is a tight race with no clear leader, even if one of them has a slightly larger percentage of support, like 48% to 47%.

As the director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, which has been taking the pulse of the public on policy issues and elections for the past 30 years, I’ve noted that people have been paying more attention to this technical term since at least 2016.

In that year, some polls in Florida, for example, indicated that Hillary Clinton was just a couple of percentage points ahead of Trump. Journalists and the public largely – and incorrectly – understood that apparent popular-vote lead to mean Clinton was likely to win.

But those 1 or 2 percentage points were within their polls’ margins of error. And Clinton lost Florida. In a poll about a political race, the margin of error tells readers the likely range of results of an election.

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What is a margin of error?

A poll is one or more questions asked of a small group of people and used to gauge the views of a larger group of people. The margin of error is a mathematical calculation of how accurate the poll results are – of how closely the answers given by the small group match the views held by the larger group.

If everyone in the larger group were polled, there would be no margin of error. But it’s complicated, difficult and expensive to contact that many people. The U.S. Census Bureau spent US$13.7 billion over several years in its most recent effort to count every person in the United States every 10 years, and it still wasn’t able to include exactly everyone.

Pollsters don’t have that kind of time – or money – so they use smaller samples of the population. They seek to identify representative samples in which all members of the larger group have a chance to be included in the poll.

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The group size is important

The calculation of how close the poll is to the views of the larger population is based on the size of the group that is polled.

For example, a sample of 600 voters will have a larger margin of error – about 4 percentage points – than a sample of 1,000 voters, which has a margin of error of just over 3 percentage points.

The way the sample is chosen also matters: In 1936, the Literary Digest magazine polled people on the presidential election by mailing surveys to telephone owners, car owners and country club members. Everyone in this group was relatively affluent, so they were not representative of the whole U.S. voting population. Calculating a margin of error would have been meaningless because the sample did not capture all segments of the population.

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A concrete example

Let’s use an example of how to understand the margin of error. If a poll shows that 47% of the polled group support Candidate A, and the margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, that means that the percentage in the population supporting Candidate A is likely to be between 44% (47 minus 3) and 50% (47 plus 3).

One quick note: Most polls report margins of error alongside another technical term, “confidence interval.” In the most rigorous reporting of polls, you might see a sentence near the end that says something like “The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, at a 95% confidence interval.” What all that means is this: Imagine if 100 different random samples of the same size were selected from the larger group, and then asked the same questions in the poll. The 95% confidence interval means that 95% of the time, those other polls’ responses would be within 3 percentage points of the answers reported in this one poll.

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Comparing support between candidates

The concept of margin of error gets more complex when looking at the differences in support between two candidates. If a margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, the margin of error on the difference between them is about double – or 6 percentage points, in this example.

That’s because the margin of error here is a combined one, and refers to not just the percentage voting for Candidate A but also to the percentage voting for the other candidate.

To look back at 2016 again, the final Quinnipiac University Poll in Florida before Election Day showed Clinton with 46% support and Trump with 45% support. The margin of error was 3.9 percentage points, which meant Clinton was likely to get between 42.1% and 49.9% of the vote, and Trump was likely to get between 41.1% and 48.9% of the vote.

The actual result was that Trump won Florida with 48.6%, as compared with Clinton’s 47.4%. Those results were within our poll’s margin of error, meaning we were correct to declare it “too close to call” – and we would have been wrong to say Clinton was ahead.

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2024 will be a close election

In the current election cycle, many media reports about polls are not including information about the margin of error.

Leaving out that information, or downplaying its significance, may help media outlets provide a quick, simple picture about the state of the race. Technology can seem precise in the modern age of the internet and artificial intelligence.

But polling is not as precise. It is an inexact science. It’s a pollster’s job to capture snapshots of the complexities of human nature at a particular time. People’s minds can change, and new information can arise as the campaigns unfold.

With the presidential election in its final weeks, our polls have been finding a fairly tight and steady race, with most voters telling us their minds are made up. Because the difference between the presidential candidates is within the margin of error in swing states, the election polling in autumn 2024 is telling Americans to hold their breath and make sure they vote, because it is likely to be a squeaker.

Many Americans had probably never heard of Aurora, Colorado, or Springfield, Ohio, before Donald Trump broadcast his false claims about these cities nationwide late in the 2024 presidential campaign.

By Miranda Cady Hallett
University of Dayton

(THE CONVERSATION) — Many Americans had probably never heard of Aurora, Colorado, or Springfield, Ohio, before Donald Trump broadcast his false claims about these cities nationwide late in the 2024 presidential campaign.

First, in September 2024, the Republican presidential nominee claimed in a debate with Kamala Harris that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were stealing and eating other residents’ pets. A month later, at a rally in Aurora, Trump declared that city to be a “war zone” overrun by Venezuelan gangs.

Trump’s false claims went viral, creating chaos for these communities. Reporters rushed in. In Springfield, so did bomb threats.

These stories feel familiar to me as an anthropologist whose work has explored the social dynamics of immigrant destinations in the United States. Springfield and Aurora are only the latest small cities to become sudden flash points in America’s ongoing – and increasingly heated – immigration debate.

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Siler City, North Carolina

The small town of Siler City, North Carolina, was used as a backdrop for anti-immigrant political rhetoric a quarter century ago.

In the late 20th century, jobs in Siler City’s local poultry industry became a magnet for Latin American immigrants and their families, leading to rapid demographic change. In 1990, the town was 98% white and African American. By the 2000 census, almost 40% of the town’s 6,000 residents identified as Hispanic or Latino.

This shift caused some racial tension, and in 2000 the notoriously racist politician David Duke headlined an anti-immigrant rally outside City Hall in Siler City.

Duke, who was also a former Louisiana state representative and former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, railed against Latin American immigrants.

“Do you understand that immigration will destroy the foundations of this country?” Duke asked. “When you have more diversity, you end up with more division and more conflict,” he said, warning of “extinction” for white people in the U.S.
Duke also railed against school integration. Thirty-five years after desegregation, this remained a favorite complaint of white supremacists.

Only a handful of people, many of them from out of town, showed up to support Duke’s message, carrying signs like “The Melting Pot is Boiling Over.”

In the short term, Duke’s rally exacerbated polarization in Siler City. It also stoked fear and anxiety among foreign-born residents, some of whom believed the local government had endorsed Duke’s message because the rally took place in front of the town hall.

Looking back, however, many Siler City residents see the David Duke incident as a turning point – toward an improvement in ethnic relations in their town.

After Duke’s rally, local politicians spoke out against the divisiveness and hatred. Within a few months, residents offended by the anti-immigrant rally had organized a unity event and cultural festival.

By the time I visited Siler City in 2008 as a graduate research assistant studying new immigration destinations, many locals noted with pride that white supremacists could gain no foothold in town. They said Duke’s racist rally caused neighbors to stop and think, and decide what side they were on.

Today, Siler City has an immigrant community advisory board, and the government actively works to promote integration and social cohesion among residents.

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Lewiston, Maine

A similar story unfolded in the working-class Maine city of Lewiston in 2002 after its mayor wrote a public letter about the city’s rising refugee population.

Just over 1,000 Somali refugees had settled in the city in the preceding year, having been displaced by civil war and drought back home.

“This large number of new arrivals cannot continue without negative results for all,” Mayor Laurier Raymond wrote. “Our city is maxed out financially, physically and emotionally.”

He called on Somali people to “pass the word (that) we have been overwhelmed.”

Raymond’s letter got the attention of organized white supremacist groups, who descended on Lewiston, a former sawmill hub of about 35,000 people. In response, local people formed an ad hoc community organization called “Many and One,” and when the hate group World Church of the Creator rallied in Lewiston on Jan. 11, 2003, only 36 people attended. About 4,000 counter-protesters came out to support the Somali community.

A film crew that had showed up to document the conflict ended up telling the story of Lewistonians sending a message of acceptance and unity.

The temporary stresses on Lewiston were real, but in general locals came down on the side of inclusion and welcome. By 2021, Lewiston had one of the country’s highest per capita populations of Muslim residents, and of Somali-Americans.

Twenty years later, the arrival of Somali families has become part of the story Lewiston tells about its history and identity.

Conservative and anti-immigrant messages continue to resonate in the town. Yet many locals, like author Cynthia Anderson, say they are “moved and inspired” by the resilience of their Somali-American neighbors.

Like most Haitians living in Springfield, Somali people did not choose to leave their country. They were displaced, and many were traumatized – yet they built new lives and contributed to the community.

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What can this history tell us now?

While there are key differences between Springfield, Aurora, Siler City and Lewiston, these four places also share many attributes.

These are all economically beleaguered cities with higher crime rates than the U.S. average but lower housing costs and more entry-level jobs in manufacturing. Such places are sometimes called “emerging gateway cities,” because they are appealing to immigrant families seeking opportunity.

Yet the same conditions also make these cities attractive to political figures seeking a stage to blame immigrants for the community’s preexisting economic, social and public safety challenges.

As in Siler City and Lewiston, Springfield and Aurora have mainly rejected false political claims and negative messages about their immigrant residents.

In Springfield, residents have organized rallies and a prayer vigil in solidarity with Haitians, and Ohio’s Republican governor defended the city against Trump’s allegations.

The Republican mayor of Aurora said before Trump’s Oct. 11 visit that he hoped “to show him and the nation that Aurora is a considerably safe city – not a city overrun by Venezuelan gangs.”

The 2024 election has brought tense and polarizing times to these towns. But history suggests that Springfield and Aurora will eventually be home to vibrant and integrated immigrant communities.

Once the vitriol fades, Trump’s incendiary misinformation will likely become just a footnote to the larger story of the country’s 21st-century transformation.

The 2024 election is rife with controversy, from the politics of the campaigns to the politics surrounding the administration of elections. Accusations of wrongdoing and ineptitude continue to plague election officials, despite their explanations of legal compliance and process.

(THE CONVERSATION) — The 2024 election is rife with controversy, from the politics of the campaigns to the politics surrounding the administration of elections. Accusations of wrongdoing and ineptitude continue to plague election officials, despite their explanations of legal compliance and process.

This is not new. During the 2016 election season, there was a growing narrative in the media and elsewhere that U.S. elections were poorly run. These accusations came from the left and the right, with concerns ranging from voter suppression to rigged machines.

My colleagues and I have been studying election administration intensely for many years. When these accusations were made, they struck us as both odd and incorrect. We traveled around the country to visit election offices. We did surveys, we interviewed people, we ran focus groups, we toured election offices.

In 2020, my colleague Kathleen Hale and I published a book on innovation in election administration. Among our conclusions: U.S. elections are not broken, and while fragmented and sometimes confusing, the system is functioning well, despite myriad pressures on it.

The 2020 election continued to underscore that American election administration is strong across the country, despite the narrative from some losing candidates that there was widespread fraud and conspiracy.

I continue to interact with election officials on a regular basis through meetings, conversations, classes I teach and election observations. While there are normal errors and mistakes that will always happen, this year’s presidential election also continues to demonstrate that the people running our elections are professionals engaging in neutral administration, upholding the law as well as important public administration principles of transparency, accountability, accuracy, integrity and widespread access for eligible voters.

These people are doing this work despite an increasingly complicated and threatening environment for election officials.

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Elections happen almost every day

There are approximately 8,000 election jurisdictions across the country. For the most part, elections are run locally by community members who work for their county or city government. Some election officials are appointed, some elected, and some are career civil service employees. During the voting period, there are thousands and thousands of volunteer poll workers who are trained to support the process.

These offices work closely with other county and city government offices. Their employees are trained on standard operating procedures to ensure ballot security and electoral integrity, and they work closely with state election offices to ensure standard application of federal and state laws. In some states, such as Colorado and Ohio, they have professional associations to enhance their coordination and work. And there are national professional and training programs to further enhance the field.

Despite the fact that most people think elections are held every other year, when you take into account state, local and special elections and the steps involved in preparation, early and absentee voting, election day voting and canvas and certification, there is an election being run somewhere in America almost every day.

Working in elections is uniquely challenging. Deadlines are fixed, budgets are comparatively small in most places, and perfection is expected at all times. For the past two presidential election cycles, election officials in some jurisdictions faced almost constant accusations of incompetence or fraud. Accusers are rarely able to provide actual evidence.

There are excellent examples around the country of good election administration in the face of many challenges and accusations of wrongdoing.

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‘Relentless … barrage of falsehoods’

Consider Wesley Wilcox, supervisor of elections in Marion County, Florida. Wilcox has been a dedicated election official for decades, honored by his colleagues across the country when they elected him to the Election Center Hall of Fame in 2023. He is an elected Republican and vocal about his support of his party.

But since 2020, Wilcox and his colleagues have been a constant target of accusations of wrongdoing, which he told a 2022 U.S. Senate committee hearing constituted a “relentless and unprecedented barrage of falsehoods.” These baseless accusations came despite the fact that Wilcox’s office was involved in the investigation of a woman who was charged with actual wrongdoing: substantiated voter fraud.

Another example is Mary Hall, an auditor in Thurston County, Washington. Hall has been recognized by the state of Washington and her colleagues for her strong professionalism for decades. She heads a robust office and staff who work to communicate to voters to ensure community trust in their processes and outcomes.

Despite that, groups in the area have organized to challenge voter registrations of people who have done no wrong, causing extra work for Hall’s office.

There are legitimate reasons that voter rolls are not perfect, and the presence of people on a voter roll who have moved and registered elsewhere is not evidence of fraud. And while such double registration is not illegal, voting in multiple places is. In the face of all of this, Hall continues to respectfully respond to their accusations and criticisms.

In 2023, her office was one of five nationally to have received envelopes with white powder in them, which turned out to be fentanyl in some cases.

“I used to be very proud of my position and telling people what I did for a living. And I don’t do that anymore, because you never know what reaction you’re going to receive from the people on the other end,” Hall told “PBS NewsHour” in November 2023.

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‘Years of unsubstantiated personal attacks’

Other than sowing confusion and public distrust, these attacks and accusations have real-life implications for the lives of the people running elections.

One of the hardest for me to watch has been Cathy Darling Allen’s resignation from the profession.

Darling Allen, the former chief election official for California’s Shasta County, is widely regarded among her peers as having the highest levels of professionalism, integrity and honesty. In 2024, Darling Allen was one of five election officials in the country whom the American Bar Association awarded its Unsung Heroes of Democracy Award. That award “recognizes those individuals and organizations who work every day, often behind the scenes or without fanfare, to ensure that our elections are secure and that the democratic ideals set forth in the U.S. Constitution are upheld.”

But years of threats, hate mail, accusations and unsubstantiated personal attacks against her left her physically ill. This stress and resulting health conditions forced her to retire early. A vocal group of county residents alleged that widespread election fraud was happening on her watch and accused her of sedition and treason. In an ironic development, a local news website reported that “Supervisor Patrick Jones, who is the most visible proponent of the claim that election fraud is occurring locally, was himself successfully elected to office in a process overseen by Darling Allen.”

Darling Allen is just one example of dedicated officials who have left the field in recent years because of the rampant, false narrative about election wrongdoing on the part of officials.

Election offices will never have the kinds of resources that those individuals, groups and countries who are attacking the integrity of their offices have.

But these officials nonetheless persist, upholding state and federal laws and professional standards of conduct and producing accurate and timely election results.

A review of the Moritz College of Law case tracker for the 2020 presidential election, which documents important election law cases from around the nation, demonstrates that many of these charges were meritless and that the results of the election were upheld. These results reflect the competence of those election officials.

Other groups, including academics, have been working to neutrally and empirically study these issues, looking at a range of topics, from election performance to best practices, as well as seeking to understand the impacts of the current narrative on the public.

Real electoral mismanagement is investigated, and the people involved face consequences if it is substantiated. Election fraud is a crime. Election officials know this and work tirelessly to ensure timely, fair, secure and accurate elections.

Some 79 countries around the world continue to enforce blasphemy laws. And in places such as Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, violation of these measures can result in a death penalty.

(THE CONVERSATION) — Some 79 countries around the world continue to enforce blasphemy laws. And in places such as Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, violation of these measures can result in a death penalty.

While the U.S. is not among those countries, it also has a long history of blasphemy laws. Many of the U.S. colonies established blasphemy laws, which became state laws. The U.S. Supreme Court did not rule that blasphemy was a form of protected speech until 1952. Even then, it has not always been protected.

As a scholar of religious and political rhetoric, I believe the history of U.S. blasphemy laws reflects a complex fight for the freedom of religion and speech.

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Early US blasphemy laws

U.S. colonies often developed legal protections for Christians to practice their religion. These safeguards often did not extend to non-Christians.

Maryland’s Toleration Act of 1649, for example, was the first Colonial act to refer to the “free exercise” of religion and was designed to protect Christians from religious persecution from state officials. It did not, however, extend that “free exercise” of religion to non-Christians, instead declaring that anyone who blasphemes against God by cursing him or denying the existence of Jesus can be punished by death or the forfeiture of their lands to the state.

In 1811, the U.S. witnessed one of its most infamous blasphemy trials, People v. Ruggles, at the New York Supreme Court. New York resident John Ruggles received a three-month prison sentence and a US$500 fine — about $12,000 in today’s money — for stating in public that “Jesus Christ was a bastard, and his mother must be a whore.”

Chief Justice James Kent argued that people have freedom of religious opinion, but opinions that were malicious toward the majority stance of Christianity were an abuse of that right. He claimed similar attacks on other religions, such as Islam and Buddhism, would not be punishable by law, because “we are a Christian people” whose country does not draw on the doctrines of “those imposters.”

Several years later, in 1824, a member of a debating society was convicted of blasphemy by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court after saying during a debate: “The Holy Scriptures were a mere fable, that they were a contradiction, and that although they contained a number of good things, yet they contained a great many lies.” In this case — Updegraph v. Commonwealth — the court argued that it was a “vulgarly shocking and insulting” statement that reflected “the highest offence” against public morals and was a disturbance to “public peace.”

By the end of the 19th century, a prominent free thought movement that rejected religion as a guide for reason had begun to emerge. Movement leaders embraced the public critiquing of Christianity and challenged laws that favored Christians, such as blasphemy laws and mandatory Bible readings in public schools.

Unsurprisingly, as historian Leigh Eric Schmidt has noted, speakers and writers in the movement regularly faced threats of blasphemy charges.

By this time, however, even in cases where freethinkers were convicted of blasphemy, judges appeared to offer leniency.

In 1887, C.B. Reynolds, an ex-preacher who became a prominent free thought speaker, was convicted of blasphemy in New Jersey after he publicly doubted the existence of God. He faced a $200 fine and up to a year in prison. The judge, however, only fined Reynolds $25, plus court costs.

While it is unclear why Reynolds was offered leniency, historian Leonard Levy suggests that it may have been to avoid making Reynolds a martyr of the free thought movement by imprisoning him.

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Protecting blaspheme as free speech

Growing calls for religious equality and freedom of speech increasingly swayed blasphemy cases in the 1900s.

In 1917, for example, Michael X. Mockus, who had previously been convicted of blasphemy in Connecticut for his free thought lectures, was acquitted in a similar case in Illinois.

While expressing dislike for blasphemy, Judge Perry L. Persons argued that the court’s job is not to determine which religion is right. He said “the Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, Mahammedan, the Jew, the Freethinker, the Atheist” must “all stand equal before the law.”

Then, in 1952, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson after New York rescinded the license for the film “The Miracle.” The film was deemed sacrilegious because of its supposed mockery of the Catholic faith.

The high court ruled that states could not ban sacrilegious films. That would be a violation of the separation of church and state, it ruled, and an unconstitutional restriction on freedom of religion and speech.

Even after the Supreme Court decision, Americans continued to occasionally face blasphemy charges. But courts shot the charges down.

In 1968, when Irving West, a 20-year-old veteran, told a policeman to “Get your goddam hands off me” after getting in a fight, he was charged with disorderly conduct and violating Maryland’s blasphemy law. When West appealed, a circuit court judge ruled the law was an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.

Despite these rulings, in 1977, Pennsylvania enacted a blasphemy statute banning businesses from having blasphemous names after a local businessman tried to name his gun store “The God Damn Gun Shop.” It was not until 2010 that the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court deemed this statute unconstitutional.

The decision followed a case in which the owner of a film production company sued the state after his request to register his company under the name “I Choose Hell Productions, LLC” was denied on the grounds that it was blasphemous. Citing the 1952 Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson case, the judge ruled that the statute was a violation of First Amendment rights.

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A sign of democratic freedom

As historian David Sehat highlights in his book “The Myth of American Religious Freedom”, since America was founded there have been strong disagreements over what religious freedom should look like. Blasphemy laws have been a key part of this clash.

Historically, many Americans have viewed the laws as justifiable. Some believed Christianity deserved special protection and reverence. Others, including some Founding Fathers such as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, have viewed the same laws as unconstitutional restrictions of free speech and religious expression.

There has recently been growing attention to the rise of Christian nationalism, the belief that the United States is or should be a Christian nation. Amid this rise, there have been attacks on free speech, such as the increase in book bans and restrictions on public protests. I believe it’s important that we, as Americans, learn from this history of the fight for the freedom of religion and speech.

Cool weather, rainy days and early evenings are signs that fall is about to arrive. If you are looking for ways to bring some coziness to your home this autumn, try these quick tips to instantly add fall vibes with warming spices, fall produce and hearty recipes

Kristen Wood
Food Drink Life

Cool weather, rainy days and early evenings are signs that fall is about to arrive. If you are looking for ways to bring some coziness to your home this autumn, try these quick tips to instantly add fall vibes with warming spices, fall produce and hearty recipes.

The sights, smells and tastes of autumn can be a welcoming treat after the summer heat. Whether you look forward to apple picking or pumpkin patches, your favorite pumpkin spice latte or the leaves changing colors, there are so many reasons to enjoy the changing of the seasons.

This year, make your autumn extra cozy, starting in your kitchen. Recipes incorporating late-season produce and warm, comforting flavors will make your meals and fall bakes a delicious way to celebrate the season.

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Setting the tone

An afternoon in the kitchen is a perfect way to spend a chilly fall day. The warmth of the oven and the smell of baked goods or roasted meat can transform your home into a cold-weather retreat.

As you prepare to cook or bake this year, elevate the fall mood even more. Light candles in your favorite fall scents and place them around your kitchen for a warm glow. You can also create a simmer pot to fill your kitchen with the aromas of fall. Simply fill a pot with water and add aromatics like orange slices, apple quarters, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and fresh rosemary sprigs. Simmer the pot on your stove on low heat to fill your kitchen with fall scents.

Put on your favorite playlist, get your seasonal hand towels out and prepare a warm drink. Now you’re ready to cook in a lovely autumn atmosphere.

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Warm spices are the heart of fall cooking

Spices have long been associated with the cooler months. In Ayurvedic beliefs from India, notes Dr. Humaira Quraishi ND, MS, spices bring warmth to the body, reducing the risk of chills and illness. Since Medieval times, spices have also been associated with the feast days of fall and winter when households would prepare extravagant dishes.

Today, fall spices are readily available and provide an easy way to bring warmth to your fall cooking. Whip up baked goods like pumpkin pie, apple pie, spice cake and ginger cookies with a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. You could also add allspice to banana bread, cinnamon to chocolate chip cookies or cardamom to shortbread to turn your favorite recipes into a spicy fall treat.

For savory recipes, try a spicy glaze for ham by combining cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and honey. Jerk chicken or spiced beef with plenty of allspice makes for a warming dinner on a cool night. Roasting vegetables like carrots and squash with whole cinnamon and cloves can make the perfect side.

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Seasonal produce

Fall brings an abundance of produce. Unlike the more delicate flavors of summer, these fruits and vegetables are hearty, making them the ideal base for fall cooking. Soups, stews and roasts will fill your kitchen with mouth-watering aromas.

Butternut squash, pumpkin and other members of the squash family are at their peak from September to November. They bring a subtle sweetness. Cube them for roasting or blend them into creamy soups.

Root vegetables like sweet potatoes and parsnips are a nutrient-rich and flavorful addition to vegetable stew. For a lighter fare in your fall cooking, make a kale salad with apple slices. Pear and gorgonzola have a bright flavor profile that works well in a savory tart or a creamy penne pasta.

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Add rich, earthy flavors with these special ingredients

Recipes with earthy flavors bring fall into your kitchen, echoing the falling leaves and smokey scents of an autumn day. According to The Mushroom Forager, cool, rainy days make fall a prime time for mushrooms like chanterelles, lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms. Mushrooms bring an earthiness to stews, pot pies and tarts, or can be sauteed to enjoy on their own.

Hearty herbs like sage and rosemary thrive as the weather cools and bring piney notes to dishes. Sage pairs well with pork and chicken, is a must-have for stuffing and complements butternut squash beautifully. Add rosemary to steak or lamb, or bake rosemary into your favorite bread recipe for a fall twist.

In addition to the fall spices like cinnamon and cloves, earthier spices like turmeric and smoked paprika bring extra warmth. Add them to mung bean soup or make a curry for a comforting dinner.

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Infuse drinks with fall flair

A cozy drink is ideal on a chilly morning or an afternoon when you’ve just finished apple picking or raking leaves. The quintessential pumpkin spice latte is even tastier when homemade. Make your own pumpkin spice syrup to add to lattes or hot chocolate.

The spices in chai and spiced cider will warm you from the inside out. Serve them in a ceramic or stoneware mug with an extra cinnamon stick. The warmth of the mug in your hands will be like a cozy hug.

For those who partake, a boozy fall drink is extra warming. Make your own mulled wine by heating red wine with brandy, orange slices and mulling spices like cinnamon, cloves and star anise. Serve mulled wine in a mug garnished with more orange slices and cinnamon sticks.

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The warmth of baking

Nothing brings fall vibes to a kitchen like baking. The delicious smells, the ambient warmth of the oven and the indulgent treats are the best way to bring in fall. Apple pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie are fall staples.

But pie is only the beginning of fall-themed baked goods. Pumpkin, cranberry, apple, maple, cinnamon, ginger - these autumn ingredients will infuse your home and your tastebuds with autumn coziness. Bake them up in cookies, bread, cakes, crumbles, sticky buns, scones and more.

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Celebrate fall in the kitchen this year

Whether you are looking forward to get-togethers with decadent treats or just want to enjoy your evenings at home, embrace autumn in your kitchen. Favorite comfort foods, rich spices and earthy flavors will have you feeling warm and cozy this year.
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Kristen Wood is a photographer, food writer, recipe developer and creator of MOON and spoon and yum. She is also the author of “Vegetarian Family Cookbook,” “Fermented Hot Sauce Cookbook” and “Hot Sauce Cookbook for Beginners.” Her work has been featured in various online and print publications, including NBC, Seattle Times, Elle, Martha Stewart, Forbes, Chicago Sun-Times and more.