Today in History (1862) - The U.S. government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation. On the same day in 1865, the Confederate Congress voted to enlist 300,000 black troops, granting them freedom with the consent of their owners. Lee surrendered a few weeks later.
The Columbia Federalist Society blog Ex Post has revived for the fall, and I have posted there about the political theories behind different attitudes toward sex crimes, as well as D.C.'s states' rights-centered argument for retaining its gun ban.