In his historic Joint Address to Congress, King Charles III cited the work of the Supreme Court Historical Society, weaving it into a broader narrative about the shared legal heritage of Britain and the United States.
Tracing the roots of American founding principles back to English law, the King declared:
“Our Declaration of Rights of 1689 was not only the foundation of our constitutional monarchy, but also provided the source of so many of the principles reiterated, often verbatim, in the American Bill of Rights of 1791. And those roots go even further back in our history: the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society has calculated that Magna Carta is cited in at least 160 Supreme Court cases since 1789, not least as the foundation of the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances.”
The King was drawing on a 2018 article published in the Journal of Supreme Court History: “What Say the Reeds in Runnymeade? Magna Carta in Supreme Court History.” Its author, Derek A. Webb — a law professor at Catholic University and a trustee of the SCHS — conducted the research while serving as a Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court, tracing how the 1215 charter has been cited and applied throughout the Court’s history.
Among those present for the address was former Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, who sat in the front row and warmly greeted the King before the speech. The two share a longstanding friendship: Breyer welcomed Charles, then Prince of Wales, to the Supreme Court in 2011. For an exclusive look at that visit — and at a 1951 Court tour by his mother, then Princess Elizabeth— see SCOTUS Scoops: Future British Monarchs Visit the Court | SCHS.