Antonin Scalia championed originalism and textualism as the dominant modes of judicial interpretation, and he was a bold leader of the court’s ascendant conservative wing during his tenure. The next two men were historic justices in very different ways. (Note: We’re talking about the first John Marshall Harlan here, not his grandson, John Marshall Harlan II, who also served on the court.) Ferguson, which upheld racial segregation in 1896 under the “separate but equal” doctrine, and he consistently dissented from a series of rulings known as the Insular Cases, which held that constitutional rights do not automatically apply in newly acquired American territories. John Marshall Harlan, for his part, was one of the greatest dissenters in Supreme Court history, especially on issues involving civil rights. In doing so, Hughes averted a political crisis with the court at the center. In 1937, with the country reeling from the Great Depression and President Franklin Roosevelt seeking to pack the court, Hughes (along with Justice Owen Roberts) “switched in time” and voted to uphold a minimum-wage law, repudiating the laissez-faire economics that had guided the court up to that point. Charles Evans Hughes served two non-consecutive stints on the Supreme Court, and it was in his second stint – as chief justice during the 1930s – that he made an indelible mark. The justices who face off in the 8-versus-9 contest might not be household names, but both were visionaries. Total Voters: 8,329 8 Charles Evans Hughes vs. According to the Washington University Law Supreme Court Database, she wrote seven “precedent-altering” opinions, among the highest of any justice in the tournament. For nearly the entirety of her 25-year term, she was at the center of the court, casting decisive votes and writing landmark opinions upholding affirmative action, abortion rights and due process for military detainees. Ogden, he cemented the power of the federal government in the fledging nation. Madison, he announced the principle of judicial review, and in opinions like McCulloch v. John Marshall’s 34-year tenure as the fourth chief justice formed the foundation of American law. The first match-up pits a founding father against the woman who broke the court’s glass ceiling. The polls for this round will close at midnight on Sunday, March 21. So get out your chalk (or your Cinderella slippers), brush up on your Supreme Court history, and let the Round of 16 begin. Over the next three weeks, we’ll run a series of reader polls to determine which justices advance in each round. (To read about how we selected and seeded the justices, and the many ways “greatness” might be measured in this context, see our bracketology FAQs.) We’ve narrowed that list down to a field of 16 former justices who have credible claims to greatness, and we’ve seeded each member of this “Supreme 16” into an NCAA-style bracket. In the 232-year history of the Supreme Court, 115 people have served as justices. Welcome to SCOTUS bracketology: a crowd-sourced quest to name the greatest justice of all time, as chosen by SCOTUSblog readers. But what would happen if the tournament brackets were filled with justices? March Madness is upon us, and even the Supreme Court will be hosting an NCAA showdown later this month.
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