| The 9 Incredibles
Turley, Jonathan
American History, October 2009, v44, #4, pp30-38
"The most notable trend in recent decades has been for presidents to put forward nominees who have empty files: impressive academic and judicial résumés combined with a sparse history of controversial speeches or writings that might be turned against them during the confirmation process. Such formulaic selections reflect the vagaries of our political system, but also our discomfort with people who are creative thinkers and can't be easily pigeonholed as either judicial activists or strict constructionists. Even though America has the deepest pool of lawyers in the world, if genius is found on the modern Court it is largely accidental. There is no standard profile for the selection of great justices. However, close examination of the records of the 111 justices who have served on the Court reveals that a select few managed to see a legal horizon far beyond the view of their contemporaries, often espousing views that would not reflect majoritarian values for decades. The nine justices featured on the pages that follow all exhibited an ability to rise above conventional thinking and prejudices and epitomize what constitutes the right stuff on the Supreme Court."
Jonathan Turley is a George Washington University law professor.
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C14/06-09. Posted October 16, 2009
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