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The Supreme Court at Work: “Sword Dancing,” Opinion Assignment and Writing
The U.S. Supreme Court writes opinions to explain and justify to the American people the decisions it reaches in cases it hears and...
HumanitiesND
Apr 26, 20244 min read
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The Court in Conference: Behind Closed Doors, the Justices Hammer Out Decisions
While oral argument provides the citizenry with a fascinating glimpse of the Supreme Court Justices at work, the heavy lifting is...
HumanitiesND
Apr 18, 20244 min read
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Oral Argument in the Supreme Court: Lawyers Seek to Persuade the Justices
Oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court is the most important, fascinating and visible part of the Justices’ public work on the High...
HumanitiesND
Apr 12, 20244 min read
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The Wild West: Justice Field, Sex and Scandal, A Foiled Assassination and Murder
Historically, U.S. Supreme Court Justices have avoided drama. A bookish group, given to tranquility and docility, the Justices mark their...
HumanitiesND
Apr 5, 20243 min read
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Justice John Rutledge: A George Washington Favorite and Founding Era Juggernaut
John Rutledge of South Carolina, a founding era titan who held virtually every important political office and judicial post from the...
HumanitiesND
Mar 28, 20244 min read
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Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth: Impeccable Pedigree for a Supreme Court Appointment
President George Washington’s nomination in 1796 of Oliver Ellsworth to serve as the third Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court was...
HumanitiesND
Mar 21, 20244 min read
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Government by Judiciary: The Four Horsemen, in the Saddle, Exert Influence and Thwart New Deal Programs
The remarkable influence of the Four Horsemen, as demonstrated by their success in thwarting on constitutional grounds President Franklin...
HumanitiesND
Mar 19, 20244 min read
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Defending the Old Constitutional Regime: The Four Horsemen Reject Government as a Relief Society
The adage that the Supreme Court follows the election returns certainly did not apply to the Four Horsemen –Willis Van Devanter, George...
HumanitiesND
Mar 6, 20244 min read
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The Four Horsemen: A Conservative Supreme Court Bloc with Outsized Influence that Resonates in Our Time.
The Four Horsemen of Supreme Court—not Biblical—lore represented one of the most important blocs of Justices in the history of our...
HumanitiesND
Feb 29, 20244 min read
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Long Reach of the Pardon Power: The Framers, Lincoln and Biden
The intriguing President’s Day news that President Abraham Lincoln granted a pardon 160 years ago to President Joe Biden’s...
HumanitiesND
Feb 22, 20244 min read
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The Supreme Court at the Beginning: What to Wear
The photos and images of U.S. Supreme Court Justices portraying earnest men and women wrestling with momentous legal issues and...
HumanitiesND
Feb 15, 20244 min read
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Freedom of the Press: The Essential Foundation of Democracy
When the U.S. Supreme Court, in Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia (1980), in the words of Justice John Paul Stevens, “squarely held that...
HumanitiesND
Feb 12, 20244 min read
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Landmark Ruling Gives Press and Public Access to Criminal Trials
The First Amendment’s Free Press Clause, which Thomas Jefferson declared indispensable to republicanism, has long been regarded as the...
HumanitiesND
Feb 1, 20244 min read
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Justice Jackson at Nuremberg: A Historic but Controversial Role
Justice Robert H. Jackson’s departure for Europe in September of 1945 to serve as chief prosecutor for the United States at the historic...
HumanitiesND
Jan 26, 20244 min read
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“Blood Feud” Inside the Supreme Court on Question of Recusal
Every now and again, the public displays an intense interest in the question of whether Supreme Court Justices ought to recuse themselves...
HumanitiesND
Jan 18, 20244 min read
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Justice Robert H. Jackson: Groomed for the Supreme Court
Few nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court have been as well prepared, let us say, groomed, for a seat on the nation’s High Tribunal than...
HumanitiesND
Jan 12, 20244 min read
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Section Three and Constitutional Democracy?
Critics of the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that former President Donald Trump, under the express terms of Section 3 of the...
HumanitiesND
Jan 8, 20244 min read
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Trump Claims Impeachment Clause Grants Him Immunity
Former President Donald Trump’s legal team has filed briefs with the D.C. Court of Appeals, which will hear oral argument in the federal...
HumanitiesND
Jan 5, 20244 min read
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A Law Court Will Affirm Colorado’s Ruling on Trump
In his landmark opinion for the U.S. Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803), Chief Justice John Marshall defined the over-arching...
HumanitiesND
Dec 22, 20234 min read
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Mr. Smith Goes to the Supreme Court to Save the Rule of Law
Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting former President Donald Trump for his efforts to illegally overturn the 2020 election, made a...
HumanitiesND
Dec 14, 20234 min read
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