by Jeffrey Rosen
Reviewed by Bruce Lesh

In many instances, student interest in a topic can be captured with the use of an interesting historical anecdote. These small stories provide a window on a topic or help to reinforce an important point in classroom instruction. Consider the story Jeffrey Rosen conveys in his chapter on Hugo Black and William O. Douglas. In the aftermath of the milestone Brown decision, the Alabama state legislature passed a resolution stating that native son, former member of the Ku Klux, Klan, and Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, could not be buried in Alabama soil. For the next ten years, Black’s visits to Alabama required him to don a bullet proof vest provided by the United States Secret Service. The personal price paid by Black for siding with the dismantling of segregation paints an important picture of the difficulties inherent to making political decisions. This vignette, like many offered in Jeffrey Rosen’s The Supreme Court—a companion book for the Public Broadcasting System’s (PBS) series of the same name—humanizes the court’s members and its decisions. The organization of the text allows readers insight into major turning points in the evolution of both the court as an institution and in its impact on Reconstruction, industrialization, the New Deal, civil rights, and the right to privacy.

The central organizing theme of the book is Rosen’s exploration of “judicial temperament,” which he defines as the “personality, character, upbringing and education, formative career experiences, work habits…”, of the justices. Through the comparison of seven justices, and one President (Thomas Jefferson), Rosen posits the argument that true measure of the court’s efficacy is the manner in which temperament guides the decisions emanating from the institution. Short biographical sketches start each chapter followed by the interactions between two justices who the author identifies as bringing different temperaments to the court. Comparisons of John Marshall and Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall Harlan and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Hugo Black and William O. Douglas, and William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia serve as the chapters of the book. Central to Rosen’s investigation is the degree to which ideological extremes are avoided and pragmatism is embraced. His descriptions of Chief Justice John Marshall, in comparison to President Thomas Jefferson encapsulate the dichotomy that drives the book’s organization. In Rosen’s estimation, it was Marshall’s “incrementalism, accommodation, practicality, philosophical moderation” that allowed him to be successful unlike Jefferson who, according to Rosen, lacked all the above mentioned skills. Later, Rosen argues that the quest for the spotlight harbored by justices William O. Douglas and Antonin Scalia also reflected a lack of the appropriate temperament. Rosen holds that William Rehnquist, on the other hand, was in possession of the correct judicial temperament because “Rehnquist had a knack for getting along with his ideological opponents,” while “Scalia managed to alienate even his ideological sympathizers.” In many instances, temperament, by Rosen’s analysis, seems to be a substitute for a reverence for the court over personal ideology or ambition. Nevertheless, the stories told in The Supreme Court are fertile ground for teachers of the court and its decisions.

Students could use the chapter organization of the book to prepare reports of the impact of the court on the Early National period, Reconstruction, industrialization, the New Deal, the Civil Rights movement, and the battle over privacy. Reports could focus not only on key decisions, but the interplay of the justices during these key moments in American History. The quick depictions of the backgrounds, personalities, and key decisions of seven Supreme Court justices found in Jeffrey Rosen’s The Supreme Court, will refresh teacher’s knowledge of the court and provide many of the anecdotes that can generate deeper student interest in a topic.

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