The Supreme Court reconvenes on Monday after summer recess. To mark this occassion, C-Span will air its documentary The Supreme Court: Home to America’s Highest Court giving us an inside look at internal workings of the US Supreme Court.
According to the Washington Post:
Supreme fanatics will learn something new here about justices’ chambers and the busts, interior artwork and exterior features of the 1935 court building.
Most interesting, this marks the first time that all the current and retired justices (including Sandra Day O’Connor, David Souter and newcomer Sonia Sotomayor) have given individual interviews on camera for the same film. If nothing else, it’s rare to see some of them move and speak up close. (Longer individual interviews will be aired later in the week, and full transcripts, natch, will go up on C-SPAN’s Web site.)
That the justices say almost nothing revealing and stick squarely to their respect and reverence for the job is fine with me, as is the fact that you’d have to go to a funeral home to find a more hushed edifice. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg most giddily shows off the hallowed halls. There is discussion of pecking order and chamber offices that face street protesters and offices that don’t. There is the never-before-filmed robing room, where one treats one’s colleagues with utmost kindness and respect, even when “you may be temporarily miffed because you received a spicy dissenting opinion,” she says.
The show airs at 9 pm Sunday night for 90 minutes on CSPAN. Sunday night is getting some better TV for those willing to leave the standard networks.
A good documentary on one our nation’s most important institutions.
I really enjoyed the explanation of how cases were slected and
decided and also the interviews with individual justices.
I agree, Poor Richard. I also think that Justice Stevens is just about the cutest little man I have ever seen. He is sharp as a tack also.
I liked the interviews the best. How often have we ever gotten to see them talking and interacting? The best we can do usually is see them walk in during the State of the Union and then see pictures on a page.
That was a very short 90 minutes. Facinating.
This entire week there will be something on at 9 pm on cspan—tomorrow will be an interview with Lyle Denniston.
Since this is the first Monday in October, may I suggest a
Google of:
-Marbury v. Madison
-Dred Scott v. Sanford
-Piessy v. Fergurson
-Brown v. Board of Education
Roger Taney was Chief Justice Of the United States for over
25 years and opined Afro-Americans are “so unfit that they had no
rights which the white man was bound to respect”. Still hard not to
wince when I read that.
Perhaps, the real story is how the country and the court evolved,
despite pain and division, over the decades – most often,
for the better.
Add – Roe v. Wade.
Griswold v. Connecticut, the ‘parent’ of Roe shows much insight into what took place with Roe.
The moment we say that our country has evolved, we bring in our own opinions. I laugh every time I hear the words ‘judicial activism.’ It is all judicial activism. If it weren’t, it wouldn’t be before the Supreme Court.
When I hear ‘judicial activism’ I also know instantly that the person saying it didn’t like whatever was handed down.
What an interesting group of scholars sitting on that court. I will have to admit I changed my mind about some of them once I saw them as flesh and blood and not just a picture of someone in a black robe with scholarly words printed next to them.