Episode Twenty Six: Race and the Supreme Court

08/24/24 • 70 min

In episode twenty-six we will continue our discussion with Professor Professor Vernon Burton and Civil Rights attorney Armand Derfner, on their brilliant book, Race and the Supreme Court. We will examine the slow evolution of the US Supreme Court on issues of social justice in the mid-20th century, culminating with it’s full-throated support in the 1950’s and 60’s. This was followed by a steady decline in that support, especially in the last ten years under Chief Justice John Roberts.

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Episode Twenty Five: Justice Deferred Race and the Supreme Court

Today we have two very special guests, Professor Orville Vernon Burton and Professor Armand Derfner. Their book Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court, is the first that comprehensively charts the Court’s race jurisprudence. Addressing nearly two hundred cases involving America’s racial minorities, they explore the parties involved, the justices’ reasoning, and the impact of individual rulings. Orville Vernon Burton is a prizewinning author of many books, including The Age of Lincoln. He is the Judge Matthew J. Perry Chair of History at Clemson University and Emeritus University Scholar at the University of Illinois. Inducted into the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collegium of Scholars, he is also a recipient of the Southern Historical Association’s John Hope Franklin Lifetime Achievement Award. Armand Derfner, a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School, has been a civil rights lawyer for more than a half century. As part of that work, he helped shape the Voting Rights Act in a series of major Supreme Court cases and in work with Congress to help draft voting rights and other civil rights laws. He is currently Distinguished Scholar in Constitutional Law at the Charleston School of Law.

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Episode Twenty Seven: Legal Education and the Legal Profession between the Revolution and the Civil War

In this episode we will discuss legal education and the legal profession between the Revolution and the Civil War. In this period the profession matured and truly came into its own. It was a time of tremendous growth in the profession when lawyers exercised ever increasing influence over the political and economic life of the nation. During this time the principle method of educating lawyers was the the apprentice system or more commonly known as "reading the law". It was also a time when the first law schools were founded in the United States. Lastly we will discuss the law practice of Abraham Lincoln.