Project MUSE®: Journal of Supreme Court History - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/853
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Journal of Supreme Court History.daily12026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 15 (1990) through current issueLatest Articles: Journal of Supreme Court HistoryTWOProject MUSE®Journal of Supreme Court History1540-58181059-4329Latest articles in Journal of Supreme Court History. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Introduction
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985486
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Across a striking range of subjects, from the physical hardships of circuit riding to the origins of judicial portraiture, the ideological clashes of the McCarthy era, the early Republic’s experiment with justices as diplomats, and even the subtle architectural refinements of the Burger Court, the articles in this issue share a common aim: to illuminate how the Supreme Court has always been shaped by forces well beyond its formal opinions. Each contribution uncovers a different facet of the Court’s lived history, revealing justices as travelers, patrons of the arts, diplomats, combatants in ideological struggle, and even amateur designers. In doing so, these pieces collectively remind us that the Court’s
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/853/image/coversmallIntroduction2026-03-12text/htmlen-USIntroduction2026-03-122026TWOProject MUSE®90782026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-12Supreme Court Justices in the Former Circuit Courts, and the Belated and Unusual System for Reporting Their Opinions
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985487
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Circuit-riding—Supreme Court justices traveling to sit as judges of the former circuit courts—is well known to readers of this Journal, but their circuit-riding activity and the fact that their opinions were not collected in a comprehensive reporter series for nearly 100 years and were organized alphabetically are rarely described. This article combines the little known with some of the familiar.1I first consider the statutory requirements for circuit-riding, which Congress eased during the nineteenth century. There then follows a brief account of the rigors of circuit-riding and the justices’ opposition to the task. I next report some aspects of the most famous circuit court case, the 1807 trial of Aaron Burr
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/853/image/coversmallSupreme Court Justices in the Former Circuit Courts, and the Belated and Unusual System for Reporting Their Opinions2026-03-12text/htmlen-USSupreme Court Justices in the Former Circuit Courts, and the Belated and Unusual System for Reporting Their Opinions2026-03-122026TWOProject MUSE®578862026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-12The Stone Court’s Artist
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985488
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Only once has an artist made individual portraits of the entire Supreme Court. His name was Oskar Stoessel, and his story has been told in a fascinating recent biography by Bryan A. Garner. It was Justice Antonin Scalia who prompted Garner while the two of them were working on one of their books in Garner’s personal library in Dallas. “Who did that magnificent portrait of Robert Jackson?” Upon examining the portrait, Justice Scalia saw the artist’s name and asked, “Who was Oskar Stoessel?”Through years of meticulous research in the justices’ files at the Library of Congress—especially the files of Justice Robert H. Jackson and Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone—Garner has produced a biography that answers Justice
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/853/image/coversmallThe Stone Court’s Artist2026-03-12text/htmlen-USThe Stone Court’s Artist2026-03-122026TWOProject MUSE®1024872026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-12George Washington’s Chief Justices as Policy Negotiators
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985489
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George Washington keenly understood that everything he did could set a lasting precedent. This included his interactions with Congress and the Supreme Court. He saw them more as adjunct political agents of the administration than as independent, disengaged arbiters, perhaps even critics, of his own executive actions. Treaty negotiation remained one of those most experimental parts of the president’s responsibilities under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. The charter, in giving the president “the power to make treaties,” required “the advice and consent of the Senate,” but left unspecified how this ought to look. Visiting the Senate with Secretary of War Henry Knox in August 1789, the president left
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/853/image/coversmallGeorge Washington’s Chief Justices as Policy Negotiators2026-03-12text/htmlen-USGeorge Washington’s Chief Justices as Policy Negotiators2026-03-122026TWOProject MUSE®697582026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-12Communist Questioning and Contempt of Congress: Shifting Rulings from the Hollywood Ten to Watkins to Barenblatt to Russell
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985490
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“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” This ‘Communist question’—directed at myriad witnesses—was an inquisitorial staple of various congressional committees during the Mc-Carthy era. And it was a question that begot a question, a constitutional question: did the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly protections of the First Amendment preclude those committees from compelling witnesses to respond to the inquiry? Adjudication of these constitutional issues led to starkly different outcomes over two decades.In this article we take a deep look at how the positions of certain justices shaped the shifting rulings of a closely and sharply divided Supreme Court, examining numerous courts
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/853/image/coversmallCommunist Questioning and Contempt of Congress: Shifting Rulings from the Hollywood Ten to Watkins to Barenblatt to Russell2026-03-12text/htmlen-USCommunist Questioning and Contempt of Congress: Shifting Rulings from the Hollywood Ten to Watkins to Barenblatt to Russell2026-03-122026TWOProject MUSE®988512026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-12Building Consensus and Changing the Court: Warren Burger and the Supreme Court Bench
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985491
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Chief Justice Warren E. Burger’s decision, in 1970, to change the shape of the Supreme Court Bench is a topic familiar to legal historians. It is mentioned in articles and books on the Burger Court, with perhaps the most thorough account being written by political scientists Ryan C. Black, Timothy R. Johnson, and Ryan J. Owens.1 Burger’s rationale for changing the Bench was based on his own experience arguing before the Court. As he stated in a written transcription of a recording2 found in the Burger archives at the College of William and Mary: “Two Justices and sometimes even three would ask questions at the time, each Justice being unaware that another Justice was addressing the counsel.” He “recall[ed] . . .
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/853/image/coversmallBuilding Consensus and Changing the Court: Warren Burger and the Supreme Court Bench2026-03-12text/htmlen-USBuilding Consensus and Changing the Court: Warren Burger and the Supreme Court Bench2026-03-122026TWOProject MUSE®175092026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-12Supreme Court History: Books Received
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985492
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Title: David Davis, Abraham Lincoln’s Favorite JudgeAuthor: Raymond J. McKoskiPublisher: University of Illinois PressPublication Date: July 22, 2025
In this study of Justice David Davis’ impact on the presidency and judiciary, the author analyzes Davis’ appointment by President Abraham Lincoln to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1862, and subsequent role in cases challenging Lincoln’s use of war powers, including Ex parte Milligan (1866). Title: Robert H. Jackson: A Life in JudgmentAuthor: G. Edward WhitePublisher: Oxford University PressPublication Date: October 1, 2025
This biography of Robert H. Jackson offers an account of his professional life based on archival sources, primarily Jackson’s papers held
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/853/image/coversmallSupreme Court History: Books Received2026-03-12text/htmlen-USSupreme Court History: Books Received2026-03-122026TWOProject MUSE®45132026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-12Illustrations
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/985494
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Page 6, Photo courtesy of Helen Knowles-Gardner.Page 7, The Supreme Court Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 2 (1990).Page 9, Act of April 29, 1802, ch. 31, 7th Cong., 1st Sess., §4, 2 Stat. 156, 157–8.Page 10, Act of April 29, 1802, §5, 2 Stat. at 158.Page 10, Library of Congress, https://lccn.loc.gov/96515666.Page 11, David Claypoole Johnston, artist, “A Discharge of Filth,” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, https://lccn.loc.gov/2010716936.Page 11, White Oak Swamp, VA, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, https://lccn.loc.gov/2018666199.Page 11, Suter’s Tavern in 1791, C.M. Bell, photographer, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/853/image/coversmallIllustrations2026-03-12text/htmlen-USIllustrations2026-03-122026TWOProject MUSE®107722026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-03-12