Sandra Day O'Connor

Thurgood Marshall: The Influence of a Raconteur

I was fresh out of Stanford Law School, working as a civilian attorney in the Quartermaster Market Center, the day Thurgood Marshall changed the nation. He had been chipping away at the building blocks of a separatist society long before 1954, of course, but it was through Brown v. Board of Education1 that he compelled us, as a nation, to come to grips with some of the contradictions within ourselves.

William Howard Taft and the Importance of Unanimity

This Term, the Historical Society has put on a wonderful series about the man who is widely—and rightly—regarded as this Courts greatest Chief Justice. Through his recognition of the right of judicial review, John Marshall secured for this Court a role in shaping the nations most important principles: racial equality, individual liberty, the meaning of democracy, and so many others.

Tribute to Justice Souter

When the U.S. Supreme Court Justices took their seats at the beginning of the 2009 Term, the Bench looked different. Gone from the Bench, after nineteen years, was David H. Souter. He returned to his home in New Hampshire, a state he likes enormously. Justice Souter will be missed by his former colleagues and by advocates before the Court, by legal scholars nationwide and by all who follow the Courts work and activities.