Constitutional Conversations

• Publication year: 2024
• Citation: Vol. 47 No. 5 Pg. 42
• Pages: 42

Constitutional ConversationsNo. Vol. 47 5 Pg. 42Wyoming Bar JournalOctober 1, 2024

Constitutional Conversations

David Gray Adler

Understanding the Supreme Court: An Enduring, Puzzling Pursuit

David Gray Adler is President of The Alturas Institute, a non-profit organization created to advance American Democracy by promoting the Constitution, civic education, gender equality and equal protection of the law.

Public understanding of the Supreme Court, the work of judicial scholars and a concern of the justices themselves resembles the pursuit of immortality: Want it, but not likely to achieve it. A young, ambitious biographer of Justice Joseph Story recounted the admonition of a senior scholar of the Court: "Young man, you will spend your entire life studying Joseph Story and never understand him."

Is there a middle ground, a role for judicial modesty? In his confirmation hearings in 2005, Chief Justice John Roberts told the Senate Judiciary Committee that "a certain humility should characterize the judicial role." He said, "It's my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat."

Americans often find themselves confused about the Court—the justices' qualifications, work, reasoning, decisions and conduct. This is nothing new. Justice Felix Frankfurter was perturbed that the citizenry...