The Supreme Court Historical Society

The Supreme Court Historical Society

Mission

The Supreme Court Historical Society is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the history of the Supreme Court of the United States.

The Society, a not-for-profit organization incorporated in the District of Columbia in 1974, was founded by the late Chief Justice Warren E. Burger who served as its first honorary chairman. The Society accomplishes its mission by conducting public and educational programs, publishing books and other materials, supporting historical research, and collecting antiques and artifacts related to the Court's history. These activities and others increase the public's awareness of the Court's contributions to our nation's rich constitutional heritage.

Public programs

Each year, the Society presents a series of lectures by distinguished scholars focusing on a particular period of the Court's history. Series topics have included "The Four Horsemen v. The New Deal," an examination of the history of the Court during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the history of the Court during World War II, the Court during the Civil War, the Court's Jewish Justices, and the Chief Justiceship. These lectures are open to the public as well as to members of the Society. The Society is a co-sponsor of the National Heritage Lecture, an annual event which the Society hosts on a rotating basis with the White House Historical Association and the United States Capitol Historical Society.

The Society conducts an acquisitions program, working closely with the Court Curator's office. The Society has contributed substantively to the completion of the Court's permanent collection of busts and portraits, as well as period furnishings, private papers, and other artifacts relating to the Court's history. Many of these objects are incorporated into displays prepared by the Curator's office for the benefit of the Court's one million annual visitors.

Education

The Society and Street Law, Inc. offer the Supreme Court Summer Institute for secondary school teachers. The Institute improves the level of instruction on the judicial system at the secondary school level, reaching students while they are developing an awareness of their rights and duties as citizens. Teachers observe the Court in session, review actual cases under consideration, and hear lectures by experts on the Court. The teachers then produce lesson plans for classroom instruction and train other teachers in techniques for incorporating the Court into the social studies curriculum. Participants in the first Summer Institute have already shared their training with over eight hundred other teachers. Sixty teachers from thirty states participated in the 1997 Summer Institute.

General interest publications

Several publications of the Society present the history of the Court in a manner suitable for students and general audiences. The Society co-publishes Equal Justice Under Law, an illustrated history of the Court, in cooperation with the National Geographic Society. In cooperation with Congressional Quarterly, Inc., the Society publishes The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-1995, a collection of biographies of the 108 current and former Justices. The Society supported the publication of The Supreme Court of the United States, a pictorial history of the Supreme Court building. Although the book briefly summarizes the history of the Court (including the period before the Court moved into its permanent home in 1935), the main focus is the Supreme Court building itself, including many areas not ordinarily open to the public and seldom photographed.

The Society also publishes a quarterly newsletter for its membership containing short historical pieces on the Court and updates on the Society's programs and activities.

Scholarship and research

The Society's scholarly publications expand public access to its sponsored historical research. The Society publishes the semi-annual Journal of Supreme Court History, containing articles by Supreme Court Justices, noted academicians, Solicitors Generals and other respected contributors. Society publications on special topics include The Jewish Justices of the Supreme Court Revisited: Brandeis to Fortas, The Supreme Court in the Civil War, and The Supreme Court in World War II, each derived from one of the Society's previous lecture series. Future publications include an issue of the Journal devoted to the Court during the New Deal era.

The Documentary History of the Supreme Court, 1789-1800 is the Society's most ambitious research and historical preservation project. The reconstruction of an accurate record of the development of the federal judiciary in the formative decade between 1789 and 1800 poses many challenges since records from this period are often fragmentary, incomplete, or missing. Six of the projected eight volumes in this series have been published by Columbia University Press.

The Society published and updates the Supreme Court of the United States 1789-1990: An Index to Opinions Arranged by Justice. The three-volume Index to Opinions is the only printed resource listing all of the opinions of each Justice, thus providing a clear picture of each individual's contribution to United States Reports, the official record of the Court's decisions.

In addition to these publications, the Society and the Federal Judicial Center are conducting a pilot oral history project documenting the service of retired Supreme Court Justices. First-hand accounts of the careers of the late Associate Justices Harry Blackmun, and William J. Brennan, Jr., and the late Thurgood Marshall and Lewis F. Powell will be preserved through recordings and the subsequent transcription and editing of oral histories.

Organization

At present, the Society has nearly 6,000 individual members who provide financial support and volunteer for service on its standing and ad hoc committees. These committees report to an elected Board of Trustees; the Executive Committee of the Board is principally responsible for policy decisions. The Chief Justice of the United States is the Honorary Chairman of the Society. Retired Associate Justice Byron R. White is an honorary member of the Board of Trustees.

The Supreme Court Historical Society supports its programs through contributions from its members, gifts, grants, and a small endowment. The Society is recognized as a (501) (c) (3) organization by the Internal Revenue Service.