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The Supreme Court Of History, Howard Jay Graham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Our theme is simple, overpowering: Justices of the Supreme Court, a number of whose predecessors destroyed the bulk or their correspondence, and who themselves may be tempted to do likewise, nonetheless quite evidently desire, and certainly deserve, faithful (if not quite full) reconstruction, both of their individual roles, and of the Court's, in our constitutional scheme. Much of this story, to quote the then Professor Frankfurter, is "largely irrecoverable,"' yet indispensable to an understanding of our institutions.

Manifestly, something of a paradox is involved in our whole attitude toward judicial history. Much of the law, particularly judge-made public law, is …