28 October 2010

About This Issue

 

The 2010 Supreme Court sat for a new group portrait. Seated, from left: associate justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and associate justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Standing, from left: associate justices Sonya Sotomayor, Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Elena Kagan. (UPDATED: October 2010)

The 2010 Supreme Court group portrait

In Washington, D.C., stands the building that best represents the rule of law in the United States. That structure is not the United States Capitol building, where Congress makes the laws, but rather the Supreme Court building one block to the east. For the first century and a half of its existence, the High Court had met at the Capitol, a guest of the legislative branch. But in 1935 the Supreme Court at last moved to a home “designed on a scale in keeping with the importance and dignity of the Court and the Judiciary as a coequal, independent branch of the United States Government.”

The Supreme Court had grown immensely in respect, legitimacy, and prestige. Few recall that the genius of its first great constitutional decision, Marbury v. Madison (1803), lies in Chief Justice John Marshall’s ability to craft a decision that avoided ordering Secretary of State James Madison to take any particular action. Had the Court done so, Marshall understood, Madison would likely have ignored its decision. By the time the justices moved to their new home, no one ignored decisions of the Supreme Court. Not President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), who fumed as the Court ruled unconstitutional key parts of his New Deal economic recovery program. In 1936, after his landslide reelection, Roosevelt proposed expanding the number of justices, affording him the opportunity to create a Court more friendly to his political objectives. Despite FDR’s enormous personal popularity, the American people turned decisively against what became known as the “Court-packing scheme.” The Supreme Court’s role as guarantor of fair play and champion of the rule of law had become firmly enshrined in American life, and beyond the ability of even the most popular and powerful political leaders to circumscribe.

And so it remains today. This edition of eJournal USA focuses on how the High Court functions. Implicit in each essay is an understanding that the way in which the Supreme Court conducts its affairs adds to its legitimacy, to its prestige at home and abroad, to its stature as guarantor of the rule of law.

We present a collection of essays in this journal that explain how the Court functions. They also illustrate how it commands the respect of Americans and plays a vital role in the constitutional system. We are fortunate to feature introductions by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Associate Justice Elena Kagan (writing for us when she was solicitor general of the U.S.), as well as contributions by legal scholars and journalists.

David Savage, the Los Angeles Times Supreme Court reporter, discusses a wide array of cases to be argued this term and the historical precedents underlying the Court’s actions. Vanderbilt University law professor Suzanna Sherry describes a number of the factors that are present in judicial decision making. Yale Law School professor and former New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse asks the intriguing question, why do many Supreme Court justices migrate from their initial ideological outlooks?

The nine justices could not discharge their duties without the assistance of their law clerks and numerous Court officials. In an interview with Philippa Scarlett, a former Supreme Court law clerk and now a practicing attorney, we learn about the role of the clerk and get an insider’s view of the Court. Four Court officials — the Court clerk, the marshal, the reporter of decisions, and the public information officer — describe their jobs, their backgrounds, and how they came to work for the Court.

The Court does not operate in a vacuum. Mira Gur-Arie describes the many exchanges that occur between members of the federal judiciary and legal professionals from around the world.

We also include in this journal brief biographies of the nine sitting and three retired Supreme Court justices and conclude with a bibliography and a guide to Internet resources. We are pleased to offer this portrait of a quintessentially American institution.

The Editors

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)