The Society awards the Erwin N. Griswold Prize on an occasional basis when a book about the history of the Supreme Court is published that is considered sufficiently noteworthy to merit that degree of recognition. In addition to receiving a monetary award, the recipient of the Prize is invited to deliver a lecture based on the winning book at the Supreme Court of the United States.
The President of the Society selects the chair of the Griswold Prize Committee who will be responsible for recommending additional members of the Committee with the advice and consent of the President. The Griswold Prize Committee will recommend the rules of eligibility for the Prize; such rules are subject to periodic review by the Society. The Society retains final authority to approve nominees for the Prize and the actual winner.
This Prize honors Erwin N. Griswold. Dean Griswold served as the Society’s Chairman from 1987 until his death in November 1994.
His distinguished career included twenty-one years as Dean of the Harvard Law School, a six year tenure as Solicitor General of the United States, more than 120 arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States, and a partnership at the law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue.
The Erwin N. Griswold Prize Committee awarded the 2014 Prize to Kevin J. McMahon for his book: Nixon’s Court: His Challenge to Judicial Liberalism and It’s Political Consequences.
An interview with the most recent prize winner Kevin J. McMahon, with our Director of Publications: Clare Cushman
2011 — Louis D. Brandeis, A Life by Melvin Urofsky
2005 — CCB, The Life and Century of Charles C. Burlingham, New York’s First Citizen, 1858-1959 by George Martin
2001 — Brandeis and the Progressive Constitution by Edward A. Purcell, Jr.
1999 — Cardozo by Andrew L. Kaufman
1995 — Learned Hand by Gerald Gunther
1992 — The Constitution in the Supreme Court: The Second Century: 1888-1986 by David Currie