# Who's your favorite US Supreme Court Justice, and why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 1, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869 "2013-06-01T16:08:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/1 "2013-06-01T16:08:48Z")
… current or former, and have you actually met your favorite, or any others that you have interesting stories about? My favorite is Thomas, because whether I agree with him or not, his opinions usually have some amusing turn of phrase in them. For example, in his dissent (which I disagreed with) in [Laurence v. Texas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_v._Texas#Thomas.27s_dissent), he called it “an uncommonly silly law” that he would have voted against if he were a Texas legislator, but wouldn’t overturn, because the people have the right to be ruled by stupid laws, if they choose. I always enjoy reading his opinions. I also read a biography of him, a few years ago, and he seemed to be the type of guy I’d like to take a road-trip with in his RV. I’ve never met him. Second favorite is O’Connor, whom I have met. I was at a social function with my mother that she was at, too, and they both grew up on farms. They both traded ‘growing up as poor farm kids’ stories, and it was very interesting to listen to. Turns out O’Connor had written an autobiography, and recommended that my mother read it. As soon as we got home, Ma went to the library for it, and I read it after she did. Interesting and amusing. Two thumbs up! So, anyone else have any Supreme Court Justice stories to tell? Maybe I should have put this in MPSIMS. Mods, make your decision! ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/2 "2013-06-01T16:42:26Z")
I like Warren because of his work in ending segregation and he graduated from my high school. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/3 "2013-06-01T16:51:58Z")
Scalia, Holmes, Douglas, Blackmun and Cardozo. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/4 "2013-06-01T17:05:41Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Scalia, Holmes, Douglas, Blackmun and Cardozo. Did you meet any of them? Any good stories? I met Scalia, but have no good stories. He’s a nice guy, in person, and his wife is nice, too, but that’s about all I can say about him. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/5 "2013-06-01T17:19:41Z")
Considering that Cardozo has been dead for more than 70 years, I’d be startled if he had met him. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/6 "2013-06-01T17:22:47Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Considering that Cardozo has been dead for more than 70 years, I’d be startled if he had met him. I didn’t actually look those up. My OP is 'have you met a live one, and what was your opinion of him/her." Live ones only, please. ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/7 "2013-06-01T17:30:20Z")
Scalia — Probably the best writer on the Court currently, although lately he seems have forgotten that “respecfully dissent[ing],” like tennis, is a game of controlled power. A skilled analyst and exponent of the theory of originalism (which theory, pace a lot of uninformed court watchers who know that they hate Scalia and haven’t studied law, actually has a good deal of intuitive appeal). Breyer & Souter — The two current/recent justices that I generally find myself agreeing with most often. Brandeis & Holmes — Of the historical justices, these are the two who I think are among the best writers (NOT CARDOZO). As to their judicial philosophy, it almost doesn’t matter, as these two have long ago won the day. Everybody agrees with them. Honorable mention to Marshall and Story, I guess. Unfortunately, they both write like pre-20th century justices (i.e., awfully). ---
**Author:** ![NeonMadman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/8 "2013-06-01T22:24:26Z")
My favorite singer/songwriter is Bob Dylan. Try as I might, I can’t settle on a favorite Supreme Court justice. But if Dylan gets appointed to SCOTUS, he will be the one. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/9 "2013-06-01T23:23:10Z")
This inherently has to do with debating issues. Moving from IMHO to Great Debates. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/10 "2013-06-02T06:58:53Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > This inherently has to do with debating issues. Moving from IMHO to Great Debates. Well, actually, I didn’t want to debate issues, I wanted opinions about the _people_, not their official ‘opinion’, but I really don’t care where it’s put, so it’s OK with me being put here… ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/11 "2013-06-02T08:09:55Z")
Clarence Thomas. He’s the most originalist of the justice and is the only one willing to overturn precedent if it conflicts with the Constitution. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/12 "2013-06-02T08:13:43Z")
I like J. Souter’s approach to the job. I like reading J. Scalia’s opinions. But this snippet from J. Frankfurter from my favorite case always gets me: > [@](#): > > Deeply embedded traditional ways of conducting government cannot supplant the Constitution or legislation, but they give meaning to the words of a text or supply them. It is an inadmissibly narrow conception of American constitutional law to confine it to the words of the Constitution and to disregard the gloss which life has written upon them. In short, a systematic, unbroken, executive practice, long pursued to the knowledge of the Congress and never before questioned, engaged in by Presidents who have also sworn to uphold the Constitution, making as it were such exercise of power part [p611] of the structure of our government, may be treated as a gloss on “executive Power” vested in the President by § 1 of Art. II. I used to think that Presidents doing unquestioned Congressional acts “added” to their Executive Constituional powers, but it really means they’ve _always had them_. Really blows my mind. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/13 "2013-06-02T12:06:46Z")
Wait did this thread title say “most embarrassing supreme court justices?” because the responses for Thomas and Scalia surely couldn’t be answering “favorite supreme court justice”… \<\_\< ---
**Author:** ![Age\_Quod\_Agis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d07c76/32.png) [@Age\_Quod\_Agis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Age_Quod_Agis)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/14 "2013-06-02T14:42:21Z")
> [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](#): > > Scalia — Probably the best writer on the Court currently, although lately he seems have forgotten that “respecfully dissent[ing],” like tennis, is a game of controlled power. I love Scalia’s writing, but I don’t know if I agree that he’s only “lately” avoided respectful dissent. IMO, the guy’s written with a poisonous pen for quite a while. (Which, I admit, is one of the reasons I like him.) One of my favorite Scalia quotes comes from his 1993 dissent in _Lamb’s Chapel v. Ctr. Moriches Union Free Sch. Dist._, 508 U.S. 384 (1993).: > [@](#): > > Like some ghoul in a late night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried, Lemon stalks our Establishment Clause jurisprudence once again, frightening the little children and school attorneys of Center Moriches Union Free School District. Its most recent burial, only last Term, was, to be sure, not fully six feet under: our decision in Lee v. Weisman, 505 U. S. ----, ---- (1992) (slip op., at 7), conspicuously avoided using the supposed “test” but also declined the invitation to repudiate it. Over the years, however, no fewer than five of the currently sitting Justices have, in their own opinions, personally driven pencils through the creature’s heart (the author of today’s opinion repeatedly), and a sixth has joined an opinion doing so. [ed - citations omitted] > > The secret of the Lemon test’s survival, I think, is that it is so easy to kill. It is there to scare us (and our audience) when we wish it to do so, but we can command it to return to the tomb at will. See, e. g., Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668, 679 (1984) (noting instances in which Court has not applied Lemon test). When we wish to strike down a practice it forbids, we invoke it, see, e. g., Aguilar v. Felton, 473 U.S. 402 (1985) (striking downstate remedial education program administered in part in parochial schools); when we wish to uphold a practice it forbids, we ignore it entirely, see Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783 (1983) (upholding state legislative chaplains). Sometimes, we take a middle course, calling its three prongs “no more than helpful signposts,” Hunt v. McNair, 413 U.S. 734, 741 (1973). Such a docile and useful monster is worth keeping around, at least in a somnolent state; one never knows when one might need him. > > For my part, I agree with the long list of constitutional scholars who have criticized Lemon and bemoaned the strange Establishment Clause geometry of crooked lines and wavering shapes its intermittent use has produced. [ed – citations omitted] [n.\*] How can you not like comparing a constitutional test to a zombie/vampire, “frightening little children and school attorneys”? That’s wonderful. My personal favorite justice is Byron White. Less because of his jurisprudence – which I think is underrated – and more because the dude was just _awesome_. He was awarded two Bronze stars for his service in the military. And he is also the only Supreme Court justice to have finished 2nd in the Heisman balloting, and then to have led the NFL in rushing. His senior year at Colorado, he led the nation in rushing – 243.6 yards per game – and set a record for all purpose yards that lasted for _51 years_, until it was broken by Barry Sanders. And his nickname was “Whizzer,” which he hated, but which followed him throughout his life. Most of the stories surrounding him seem to relate to the basketball court in the Supreme Court building, and the fact that White apparently had a penchant for leveling Supreme Court clerks with elbows during their friendly games. I think there’s a good chance Byron White is one of the most well rounded people in American history. The guy was apparently just awesome at everything. The only other anecdote I’ve personally heard about Supreme Court justices is that a friend attended law school courses overseas, and one of the instructors was Chief Justice Rehnquist. Naturally, a bunch of law students were too intimidated to ever talk to Rehnquist. So he started bumming cigarettes from the students as a way of striking up conversations with them. I think that’s just adorable. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court having to resort to tricks to get people to hang out with him. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/15 "2013-06-02T16:25:29Z")
Justice Robert Jackson. I loved his quote, “We are not final because we are infallible, we are infallible because we are final.” ---
**Author:** ![lawbuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@lawbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawbuff)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/16 "2013-06-03T15:10:36Z")
> [@Cheshire\_Human](#): > > So, anyone else have any Supreme Court Justice stories to tell? I sat in on an oral argument in 1975 and saw some of the greats including William O. Douglas and CJ Burger. I favor William Howart Taft, born in Cincinnati. I toured his birth home once. He is buried in Arlington cemetery. The only President AND Chief Justice both, or any Justice for that matter. He was very instrumental in the SC getting it’s own building in 1935. I also favor the great John Marshall. While touring Richmond (notably Hollywood cemetery) I wanted to tour his home, but time ran out. Of course he penned the landmark Marbury v. Madison. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/17 "2013-06-03T15:22:22Z")
Harry Blackmun, solely [for the balls it took to spend 22 pages admitting that baseball was interstate commerce and then rule that baseball was exempt from antitrust laws anyway](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/407/258/case.html) because hey, it was Congress’ job to fix glaring errors. ---
**Author:** ![lawbuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@lawbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawbuff)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/18 "2013-06-03T15:27:59Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Harry Blackmun. Saw him to on the bench, along with Potter Stewart, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, William Brennan and William Rehnquist, an associate then. Rehnquist favored the “New Federalism” doctrine. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/19 "2013-06-03T15:51:39Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > Justice Robert Jackson. > I loved his quote, “We are not final because we are infallible, we are infallible because we are final.” +1 for Robert Jackson. I’ve met Ginsberg. She struck me as kinda liberal. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869/20 "2013-06-03T16:34:31Z")
Met Scalia. He gave a talk at our law school and I was one of the students selected to meet with him in a small group for questions and answers and general hanging out. He’s a pompous blowhard with a hyperinflated ego, bad manners, and is an all around douche who seems to enjoy making an ass of himself. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-your-favorite-us-supreme-court-justice-and-why/659869.md?page=2)