Over the past month, we’ve been presenting collections of classic New Yorker stories freshly unlocked from our archive. Previous anthologies have focussed on theatre, crime and punishment, New York City, and the small screen. This week, we’re releasing a collection of six classic articles on the Supreme Court. Many of these pieces highlight the ways in which the Justices have transformed both the Court and the nation in recent decades.
In “The Constitutionalist,” Nat Hentoff traces the enduring progressive legacy of Justice William Brennan, one of the longest-serving Justices in the Court’s history. Jeffrey Toobin’s “Heavyweight” describes how Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has changed the Court’s views on gender issues, while Margaret Talbot chronicles the intellectually combative style and deep-seated certainty of Justice Antonin Scalia in “Supreme Confidence.” In “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” Toobin reveals Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., to be a stealth hard-liner, with a record less reflective of a restrained moderate than a doctrinaire conservative. Lauren Collins’s “Number Nine” explores Sonia Sotomayor’s high-profile début as one of the Court’s most exuberant interrogators. Finally, Toobin’s “Swing Shift” recounts Anthony Kennedy’s passion for foreign law and how his pivotal role as a swing vote on the Court has evolved over the past twenty-five years.
We hope that you enjoy these pieces as much as we do—and that you’ll follow the magazine on Facebook and Twitter, where many of our contributors will also be recommending their favorite stories.
