American Decades
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. 1841-1935
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT
A New Age Arrives.
The evolution of the Supreme Court as an institution has historically occurred in a series of stages, each of which tends to overlap the next, thus blurring the boundaries between them, and sometimes obscuring the significance of events occurring during these transitional periods. More often than not, these stages serve as a framework within which the forces that have influenced the Court's decisions are to be understood. Occasionally, but rarely, the transition from one era to another has been symbolized by the presence on the Court of a justice whose stature, ability, and performance make him the embodiment of the new age. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. was that kind of a justice. Despite his strengths, however, he was never able entirely to escape the Darwinian and Spencerian influences of his formative years as a lawyer. Like the judges he often criticized, Holmes...
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1910's Law and Justice
