The Supreme Court
Historical Society
Now available on YouTube, the 8th Annual Salmon P. Chase Distinguished Lecture delivered by Professor Martha Jones on April 22, 2021. The lecture focused on the 100th Anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Speaker: Sarah A. Seo is a Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. She is legal historian of criminal law and procedure in the 20th-century United States. Her recent book, Policing the Open Road: How Cars Transformed American Freedom, examines the history of the automobile to explain the evolution of the Fourth Amendment and to explore the problem of police discretion in a society committed to the rule of law.
Justice John Marshall Harlan (1877-1911) was riding the streetcar home from the Capitol after a Supreme Court session when a woman coming from the market got on. In a grand gesture noticed by the other riders, he took a whiff of her voluminous sleeves. “Madam is that mint?” he asked. She nodded and showed him the sprigs that were tucked up inside. Harlan replied: “If I had [mint] I would know just what to do with it.” The Kentucky Justice meant, of course, that he would add it to his bourbon.
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As Kentucky Derby Day approaches and thoughts turn to two of Kentucky’s finest products – thoroughbred horses and bourbon – a third could be added to the list: Supreme Court justices. For 150 years, if you were placing bets on where a Supreme Court justice would come from, the odds were very good that the appointee would be from Kentucky.
From 1807 through 1957, there was always at least one justice from Kentucky on the High Court, and from 1938 through 1939, three of the nine justices were from the Bluegrass State (James C. McReynolds, Louis D. Brandeis, and Stanley F. Reed).
Snyder, author of Well-Paid Slave, on the Supreme Court and Baseball.
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The Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on baseball and anti-trust law began in 1922 with a unanimous ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League that holds to this day. But the Court’s relationship with baseball isn’t just through its cases. The men and women who have served on the Court included committed baseball fans.
Membership In The Society
Society members represent 9 countries, over 85 US Courts, 75 Colleges and Universities plus a broad array of attorneys, scholars, students, and individuals. Society Members receive invitations to all of our events which include both live and digital presentations, reenactments of landmark cases, the Journal of Supreme Court History, the Quarterly newsletter and dinners and reception hosted by the Justices. Members have access to the Society’s Headquarters in Washington D.C. which houses one of the finest and most rare collections of Justice’s writings and historic texts related to the Court. We invite you to consider a membership today.
Online Access to the Journal of Supreme Court History
Society members receive the Journal of Supreme Court History, published three times per year via mail. Members also have exclusive online access to the most current Journals through our partnership with Wiley – our publisher. Older copies of the Journal are available for public access in the Society’s Digital Library. The Quarterly, the Society’s newsletter is available in the Society’s online library as well.
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Joining the society takes only a few minutes. We welcome your membership! Click here to join.
Contributions to the society take many forms including direct financial support, grants, in-kind gifts, and bequests. Donors may designate the purpose for which their gift must be spent. Gifts to assist the Society in meeting its general operating budget – which supports our programs are always needed. In addition, the Society works closely with the Supreme Court to acquire and maintain art, antiques, artifacts, and memorabilia documenting the history of the Court for display in the public and private areas of the building. You may click the link here to make a donation to the Society. You may also call the Society at 202.543.0400 for more information.