Litigation

Supreme Court Building Opened 75 Years Ago

By Peter Hardin

A New York Times editorial paid tribute to the “Temple to Justice,” as its headline put it, recognizing the current Supreme Court building on the 75th anniversary of inaugural arguments there.

Chief Justice William Howard Taft and architect Cass Gilbert made the building their project. Paraphrasing authors Judith Resnik and Dennis Curtis, the editorial describes the structure as “as the major symbol of American courts? essential role in our democracy and of the Supreme Court?s particular responsibility for making hard choices fairly and openly.”

The editorial castigates the high court under Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. as too often running opposite to that ideal, saying “its rulings tend to deny rather than promote access to justice” and the court has even barred the public from entering through the building’s bronze front doors, out of security concerns. The editorial sums up:

“In 1935, the court building opened as a symbol of … promise before the court had done a lot to fulfill it. Since then, the court has handed down monumental decisions, such as Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The unanimous ruling declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional fully established the court as a moral force in American life.

“The Roberts court needs to work harder to live up to that standard and to the vision of Taft and Gilbert reflected in the court building. For that, justice must be truly democratic, not merely reserved for the powerful.”

Justice Roberts, in his year-end report on the federal judiciary (see Gavel Grab), alluded to the building’s 75th anniversary.

Meanwhile in Fortune magazine, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. is profiled in an article entitled, “On history’s stage: Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.: As the youngest leader of the high court in two centuries, he has the energy, the intellect, and the votes to reshape our world.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 03, 2011 (boomark / email).