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Full-Text Articles in Law
William Johnson, The Dog That Did Not Bark?, Mark R. Killenbeck
William Johnson, The Dog That Did Not Bark?, Mark R. Killenbeck
Vanderbilt Law Review
The conventional wisdom is that Justice William Johnson, Jr., was the "the first dissenter." This is not literally true. The first published opinion of the Court was Georgia v. Brailsford, in which each member of the Court expressed his views seriatim. Ironically, the first to speak was the first Justice Johnson, Thomas of Maryland, whose reasoning helped create a 4-2 split that produced a number of Supreme Court firsts: the first published set of opinions, the first split decision, and the first dissent.
It was the "other" Justice Johnson, William of South Carolina, who earned the reputation as the first …
Neglected Justices: Discounting For History, G. Edward White
Neglected Justices: Discounting For History, G. Edward White
Vanderbilt Law Review
The category of "neglected Justices" presupposes meaningful baselines for evaluating judicial reputations. A Justice cannot be deemed "neglected" except against the backdrop of some purported consensus about that Justice's reputation and the reputations of other Justices. Moreover, when the category of "neglected Justices" encompasses the performance of Justices who served in different time periods, it also presupposes that evaluative baselines for Justices can retain their integrity in the face of historical change and historical contingency.
This Article argues that when one discounts for history in the process of evaluating judicial reputations, the effects of history are sufficiently powerful to throw …