SCOTUSblog on camera: Burt Neuborne part six

Reflecting on a long career of arguing before the Supreme Court: John Marshall Harlan II, at the end of his career; Thurgood Marshall, William O. Douglas and the constitutionality of the Vietnam War; losing Byron R. White, and so the case, at oral argument; blessing Stephen G. Breyer’s desire to call out a First Amendment case for what it was; the anxieties of oral argument; and the eagerness to get back to the Court’s “on deck circle” as soon as possible.

In this six-part series, Burt Neuborne describes the Supreme Court as a necessarily political institution, explains how the Constitution and the Court’s position in our democracy affects our understanding of what the Court and its Justices can and should do, and tells stories of arguing before the Court and individual Justices.  Mr. Neuborne is the Inez Milholland Professor of Civil Liberties and founding Legal Director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. His long career in academe and civil rights advocacy includes teaching and writing about constitutional law and procedure, numerous oral arguments before and briefs submitted to the Supreme Court, and serving as a principal counsel in lawsuits seeking to recover property unjustly taken from Holocaust victims by Swiss banks and German corporations during the Nazi era.

(Fabrizio di Piazza)