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Publication Man’s Best Fiend: The Black Dog and Social Change in EnglandVail, RowanTales of dark, fiery-eyed hounds heralding storms and prowling lonely roads have been a consistent presence in English folklore since at least the time of the Reformation. Despite their ubiquity, these Black Dogs do not always serve the same purpose. These distinctions correspond with three different natures: the Devil, which seeks to punish sinners; the Omen, which appears as a portent of death; and the Guardian, which acts as a protector. These interlocking evolutions formed as direct reflections of moments of social change within England.Publication “All Rights Are Held Subject to the Police Power”: The Rise and Fall of the Police Powers in American Constitutional LawThomas, AlbertCurrent libertarian understandings of individual rights are assumed by many to have been a fundamental part of our American culture since the nation’s founding. Yet our understanding of American individualism and its ideals is a modern one; though the Bill of Rights speaks of individual liberties which are to be protected against the federal government, local "police" powers took priority over individual rights through much of U.S. history. The police powers were predicated on a community-centered interpretation of liberty, which resembles the philosophy of Rousseau. In this thesis, I argue that 19th-century America exhibits a remarkably French understanding of religious freedom that has, over time, evolved into our present-day libertarian understanding of constitutional freedoms. Consequently, this seeks to alter our contemporary conceptualization of American legal historyPublication Sacred Symbioses and Feminine Succubi: Humoral Theory and Sexual Intercourse in Early Modern EuropeSilverman, NaomiSocio-medical tools for making sense of gender and sex in Early Modern Europe were grounded in humoralistic concepts traceable from classical medicine. Some modern scholars have analyzed the implications of the sexual dimorphism of humoral properties in terms of women’s status or men’s status. Still, little has focused on the actual interaction between the sexes. I use multiple mid-seventeenth-century treatises on women’s health and a contemporary love poem, as well as earlier humoral musings and recent scholarly works, to explore the role of sexual intercourse in Early Modern women’s humoral health.Publication The Invisible Amendment: The Evolution of the Right to PrivacySpevack, JeremyCiting six landmark Supreme Court cases, this piece argues that the meaning of America’s unwritten right to privacy has changed over time. It follows the right to privacy from its original appearance in an 1891 case between private actors to its application, beginning in the 1960s, against government regulation of intimate activities and bodily autonomy. It concludes with the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which may mark the beginning of a new chapter for the right to privacy in American law.Publication The Blurriness of Speech at “The Schoolhouse Gate”Hastry, BriannaThe landmark 1969 Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, stated that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression at the schoolhouse gate,” so long as the speech does not “materially or substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school.”36 However, unlike many precedents set in landmark cases, this ruling has been unclear and contested in ensuing decades. Minors’ free speech rights must be understood in the context of a long, complex, and at times contradictory history of conflicting interpretations, such that, even now, more legal challenges are required to produce a clear set of rules. Through an analysis of a variety of contradicting court cases regarding free speech in schools, the rights of minors more broadly, and “right to know” issues in students’ education, the highly contested nature of minors’ free speech rights, historically and contemporarily, becomes apparent.