Shelf 6 of 8 · Who Gets to Sit

The Court’s Divides: Race, Religion, and Gender

Who gets to sit — the “Catholic seat,” the “Jewish seat,” the first women, and the racial reckonings of the modern Court.

The reading list — 14 books

Perry, Barbara A. A “Representative” Supreme Court? The Impact of Race, Religion, and Gender on Appointments. 1991.

Perry, Barbara A. The Priestly Tribe: The Supreme Court’s Image in the American Mind. 1999.

Dalin, David G. Jewish Justices of the Supreme Court: From Brandeis to Kagan. 2017.

Burt, Robert A. Two Jewish Justices: Outcasts in the Promised Land. 1988.

Hirshman, Linda. Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World. 2015.

Gutgold, Nichola D. The Rhetoric of Supreme Court Women: From Obstacles to Options. 2012.

Kiel, Daniel. The Transition: Interpreting Justice from Thurgood Marshall to Clarence Thomas. 2023.

Chrisman, Robert, and Robert L. Allen, eds. Court of Appeal: The Black Community Speaks Out on the Racial and Sexual Politics of Clarence Thomas vs. Anita Hill. 1992.

Schmidhauser, John R. Stare Decisis, Dissent, and the Background of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. 1962.

Ulmer, S. Sidney. Social Background as an Indicator to the Votes of Supreme Court Justices in Criminal Cases: 1947–1956 Terms. 1973.

Tate, C. Neal. Personal Attribute Models of the Voting Behavior of U.S. Supreme Court Justices: Liberalism in Civil Liberties and Economics Decisions, 1946–1978. 1981.

Jackson, Percival E. Dissent in the Supreme Court: A Chronology. 1969.

Miller, Loren. The Petitioners: The Story of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Negro. 1966.

Lowe, Jennifer M., ed. The Jewish Justices of the Supreme Court Revisited: Brandeis to Fortas. 1994.

Also listed in the JSCH Index: 13 further works

Works listed under this heading in the JSCH Index that have not been read for these pages. Each is given as cited there, with a note on where a copy can be had; none carries a review.

  1. Alexander, Jordan. “Striving for Civil Rights: Senator Edward W. Brooke, President Richard Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’ and the Supreme Court.” Journal of Supreme Court History 46, no. 2 (2020): 206–228.[Free online] Read it →
  2. Dudziak, Mary L. “The Supreme Court and Racial Equality During World War II.” Journal of Supreme Court History 21, no. 1 (1996): 35–48.[Free online] Read it →
  3. Edwards, Laura F. “The Reconstruction Rights: The Fourteenth Amendment and Popular Conceptions of Governance.” Journal of Supreme Court History 41, no. 3 (2016): 310–328.[Free online] Read it →
  4. Jones, Zach. “FDR’s Court-Packing and the Struggle for Civil Rights.” Journal of Supreme Court History 48, no. 2 (2023): 215–238.[Free online] Read it →
  5. Peppers, Todd C. “William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr. : Breaking the Color Barrier at the U. S. Supreme Court.” Journal of Supreme Court History 33, no. 3 (2008): 353370.[Free online] Read it →
  6. Powe, L.A., Jr. “October Term 1963: ‘The Second American Constitutional Convention.’” Journal of Supreme Court History 38, no. 2 (2013): 194–206.[Free online] Read it →
  7. Ranney, Joseph A. “‘This Law, Though, Did Speak’: The Civil Rights Cases and Their Unseen Aftermath.” Journal of Supreme Court History 49, no. 1 (2024): 8–25.[Free online] Read it →
  8. Ross, Michael A. “The Supreme Court, Reconstruction, and the Meaning of the Civil War.” Journal of Supreme Court History 41, no. 3 (2016): 275–294.[Free online] Read it →
  9. Rutherglen, George. “Textual Corruption in the Civil Rights Cases.” Journal of Supreme Court History 34, no. 2 (2009): 164–169.[Free online] Read it →
  10. Stone, Geoffrey R. “Civil Liberties in Wartime.” Journal of Supreme Court History 28, no. 3 (2003): 215–251.[Free online] Read it →
  11. Trestman, Marlene. “Fair Labor: The Remarkable Life and Legal Career of Bessie Margolin (1909-1996).” Journal of Supreme Court History 37, no. 1 (2012): 42–74.[Free online] Read it →
  12. Wallenstein, Peter. “To Sit or Not to Sit: The Supreme Court of the United States and the Civil Rights Movement in the Upper South.” Journal of Supreme Court History 29, no. 2 (2004): 145–162.[Free online] Read it →
  13. Weinrib, Laura. “The Limits of Dissent: Reassessing the Legal of the World War I Free Speech Cases.” Journal of Supreme Court History 44, no. 3 (2019): 278–294.[Free online] Read it →
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