BackStory

The following audio clips are extended versions of interviews included in the BackStory episode “Scales of Justice: A History of Supreme Court Nominations,” broadcast in June of 2010. You can listen to the entire episode here.

• 18th Century Guy Peter Onuf talks to historian Maeva Marcus about “circuit riding” by Supreme Court justices in the first half of the nation’s history. She explains that while the practice may have helped bind the young nation together, its benefits came at the expense of Supreme Court justices’ health & well-being.

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• 19th Century Guy Ed Ayers talks to historian Linda Przybyszewski about the life and times of Justice John Marshall Harlan, who issued the lone dissent in the infamous 1896 case, Plessy v. Ferguson.

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• Henry J. Abraham, the judiciary scholar who has chronicled every single Supreme Court appointment in U.S. history, tells 20th Century Guy Brian Balogh about a few of the highlights — and lowlights — of relations between the judicial and executive branches.
  • Excerpt 1: Justice John Marshall, Justice Samuel Chase

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  • Excerpt 2: Justice Benjamin Cardozo

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  • Excerpt 3: Justice Wiley Blount Rutledge

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  • Excerpt 4: Justice Arthur Goldberg

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