Menu
Idea

Supreme Court justices

110
Filter by:

Filter by published date

David Souter

Justice David Souter Was the Antithesis of the Present

His jurisprudence has been overshadowed by that of his showier colleagues but was a model of principled restraint.
by Jeannie Suk Gersen via The New Yorker on May 15, 2025
William Rehnquist

The Late Supreme Court Chief Who Haunts Today’s Right-Wing Justices

William Rehnquist went from a lonely dissenter to an institutionalist chief—and his opinions are all the rage among the court’s current conservatives.
by Duncan Hosie via The New Republic on October 23, 2024
Supreme Court building.

Lifetime Tenure for Supreme Court Justices Has Outlived Its Usefulness

While letting justices serve during “good behavior” was designed to encourage impartiality, it now tends to promote the opposite effect.
by Jack Rakove via Brennan Center For Justice on October 15, 2024
Chief Justice John Roberts attending the State of the Union.

J. Roberts et al. v. A. Lincoln

As the Supreme Court invents a law to negate all others, Chief Justice John Roberts now ranks just below Roger Taney.
by Harold Meyerson via The American Prospect on July 8, 2024
1957 U.S. Supreme Court Justices
partner

Super Chief

Reconsidering Earl Warren's place in U.S. history.
by Michael Bobelian via HNN on May 14, 2024
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas leading Washington Post editors on a hike along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, as part of his campaign to prevent the construction of a highway along its route, Maryland, 1954.

The Frontier Justice

William O. Douglas was a strong advocate of conservation, but as a Supreme Court justice his involvement in such issues was often ethically questionable.
by Jed S. Rakoff via New York Review of Books on May 4, 2023
A portrait of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, nicknamed "Old Bacon Face," painted by John Beale Bordley in 1836.

Can a Supreme Court Justice Be Impeached? Meet ‘Old Bacon Face.’

Samuel Chase was the only Supreme Court justice to be impeached, after he openly campaigned for a president and told jurors who he thought was guilty.
by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on April 7, 2023
Abortion opponents hold signs reading "I Vote Pro-life First" outside Supreme Court

Abortion and Partisan Entrenchment

The modern Republican Party has tied itself to Roe v. Wade. With the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs, the party is vulnerable to new issues.
by Jack Balkin via Social Science Research Network on September 14, 2022
Black and white side profile of Felix Frankfurter reading.

The Justice Who Wanted the Supreme Court to Get Out of the Way

Felix Frankfurter warned that politicians, not the courts, should make policy.
by John Fabian Witt via The New Republic on August 26, 2022
Cartoon of the Supreme Court with its columns tangled.

The Problem of the Supreme Court

It’s time to admit that the nation’s highest court has been a source of harm more often than it’s been a force for justice.
by Louis Michael Seidman via The Nation on June 20, 2022
Artistic photo of John Marshall

America’s ‘Great Chief Justice’ Was an Unrepentant Slaveholder

John Marshall not only owned people; he owned many of them, and aggressively bought them when he could.
by Paul Finkelman via The Atlantic on June 15, 2021
John Marshall Harlan and Robert James Harlan

The Black Hero Behind One of the Greatest Supreme Court Justices

John Marshall Harlan's relationship with an enslaved man who grew up in his home showed how respect could transcend barriers and point a path to freedom.
by Peter S. Canellos via Politico Magazine on June 6, 2021
Headshot of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The Glorious RBG

I learned, while writing about her, that her precision disguised her warmth.
by Irin Carmon via Intelligencer on September 18, 2020

The Last of the Small-Town Lawyers

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement marks the end of an era on the Supreme Court—and a turn toward hard-edged partisanship.
by Garrett Epps via The Atlantic on June 27, 2018

The Court’s Supreme Injustice

How John Marshall, Joseph Story, and Roger Taney strengthened the institution of slavery and embedded in the law a systemic hostility to fundamental freedom and basic justice.
by Allen Mendenhall via Los Angeles Review of Books on May 24, 2018
Ruth Bader Ginsburg sitting on a chair in a room with a fireplace

How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Moved the Supreme Court

Despite her path-braking work as a litigator before the Court, she doesn't believe that large-scale social change should come from the courts.
by Jeffrey Toobin via The New Yorker on March 11, 2013
Justice John Roberts.

The Supreme Court Could Take Another Shot at Voting Rights

If the justices take up a case on Virginia’s felon disenfranchisement law, they’ll be burrowing back to Reconstruction-era jurisprudence.
by Matt Ford via The New Republic on April 22, 2025
Supreme Court justices William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, and Owen J. Roberts at the White House.

FDR’s Compliant Justices

The Supreme Court’s deference to FDR during World War II resulted in unjustifiable ethical breaches.
by Jed S. Rakoff via New York Review of Books on November 14, 2024
Political cartoon showing Supreme Court Justice Sutherland handing a woman worker a decision on minimum wage.

The Most Conservative Branch

Stephen Breyer criticizes recent Supreme Court decisions and argues for a more pragmatic jurisprudence.
by Jed S. Rakoff via New York Review of Books on August 29, 2024
Illustration of John Roberts, with face obscured by half of the presidential seal.

The Supreme Court Fools Itself

The Roberts Court has made the current crisis of American democracy perpetual.
by Adam Serwer via The Atlantic on July 24, 2024
Chief Justice Earl Warren (left), President Richard Nixon (center), and Chief Justice Warren E. Burger (right).

I Argued ‘U.S. v. Nixon.’ The Supreme Court’s New Ruling on Presidential Immunity Appalled Me.

Fifty years after ruling against a corrupt president, the Court has now decided that presidents are above the law.
by Philip Allen Lacovara via The Bulwark on July 8, 2024
Donald Trump walking onstage, next to four American flags.

‘The Dred Scott of Our Time’

The Supreme Court has invested the presidency with quasi-monarchial powers, repudiating the foundational principle of the rule of law.
by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on July 4, 2024
Frozen truck on icy road

The Frozen Trucker and the Fugitive Slave

On the TransAm Trucking case, legal reasoning, and the Fugitive Slave Act.
by Barry Goldman via 3 Quarks Daily on May 27, 2024
Woman holding up a pocket-sized copy of the U.S. Constitution.

Conservatives Don’t Have a Monopoly on Originalism

The text and historical context of the Constitution provide liberals with ample opportunities to advance their own vision of America.
by Simon Lazarus via The New Republic on March 29, 2024

Why the Long Shadow of Bush v. Gore Looms Over the Supreme Court’s Colorado Case

In the fight over keeping Trump’s name on the ballot, the 2000 decision is a warning but not a precedent.
by E. Tammy Kim via The New Yorker on February 7, 2024
William Howard Taft, with the Supreme Court building under construction in the background.

The Architect of Our Divided Supreme Court

100 years ago, Chief Justice William Howard Taft made the Court more efficient and more powerful, marking a turning point whose effects are still being felt.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on January 22, 2024
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Conservatives’ Favorite Legal Doctrine Crashes Into Reality

Originalism is all the rage on the right, but a gun case at the Supreme Court is exposing its absurdity—even to the conservative justices.
by Matt Ford via The New Republic on November 9, 2023
Supreme Court Justice Harlan F. Stone photographed with a book.

The Supreme Court's World War II Battles

Cliff Sloan’s new book explains how the Franklin Roosevelt-shaped Court wrestled with individual rights as the nation fought to save itself and the world.
by Robert L. Tsai via Washington Monthly on September 22, 2023
In July 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt swore in Attorney General Robert Jackson as a Supreme Court justice. Jackson and Roosevelt often played poker together.

How FDR’s Influence Over the Supreme Court Transformed History

In “The Court at War,” Cliff Sloan examines the close relationship between FDR and the high court during World War II.
by Michael Bobelian via Washington Post on September 22, 2023
Supreme Court justice swearing in FDR at inauguration.

When FDR Took On the Supreme Court

The standard narrative of Roosevelt's court-packing efforts casts them as a failure. But what if they were a success?
by John Fabian Witt via The Nation on June 27, 2023
View More
30 of
110

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History