Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-349) and index. Law Library's copy donated by Jen Mart-Rice. IaU-L
Contents:
Let's get this show back on the road. Part two. What we are missing -- Two Marshalls and a Whizzer -- Washington's first six : founders, politicians, entrepreneurs, and one Cushing -- Washington's last four : bankruptcies, mental illness, and a Bacon face -- Part two. The studies -- The lawyer's lawyers disappear -- Our lost lawyer-statesmen -- The triumph of the circuit court judge -- Changing case conferences to faculty meetings : the rise of law professors -- From the Acela Corridor to the Beltway -- From polymath autodidacts to hoop-jumpers extraordinaire -- Let's make the justices weird again -- Bring back phronesis and range -- The narrowing of life's rich pageant : experiential diversity shrinks -- Let's get this show back on the road.
Summary:
"The Credentialed Supreme Court starts by establishing just how different today's Justices are from their predecessors. The book combines two massive empirical studies of every Justices' background from John Jay to Amy Coney Barrett with short, readable bios of past greats to demonstrate that today's Justices arrive on the Court with much narrower experiences than they once did. The modern Supreme Court specializes in cloistered and elite lives. Today's Justices have spent more time in elite academic settings (both as students and faculty) than any previous Courts. Every Justice but Barrett attended either Harvard or Yale Law School, and four of the Justices were tenured professors at prestigious law schools. They also spent more time as Federal Appellate Court Judges than any previous Courts. These two jobs (tenured law professor and appellate judge) share two critical components: both jobs are basically lifetime appointments that involve little or no contact with the public at large. The current Supreme Court is packed with a very specific type of person: type-A overachievers who have triumphed in a long tournament measuring academic and technical legal excellence. This Court desperately lacks individuals who reflect a different type of "merit". The book examines the exceptional and varied lives of past greats from John Marshall to Thurgood Marshall and asks how many, if any, of these giants would be nominated today. The book argues against our current bookish and narrow meritocracy. Healthier societies offer multiple different routes to success and onto bodies like our Supreme Court"--Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.