APRIL 2024 MAGAZINE

The Doctrine of Fairness: Where the Justices Meet Justice...For better and worse, our Supreme Court is a political institution and not, despite its trappings, a temple of Olympian detachment -- as the Roberts court has amply demonstrated.  The justices play a deadly serious intellectual game in which they deploy arcane legal reasoning to justify imposing their sometimes highly partisan rulings on the rest of us. 

 If I take a look at the people who are in my life—and that includes all of you—then this is the moment when I can express great gratitude. Thank you for being part of this journey with me.

The dead man splayed on the sidewalk looks ready to be drawn and quartered like an angus cow. Cops are called to pick him up before his corpse starts to stink. One couple is huddled together on the ground in front of a doorway.  The woman lies on the top of the man and sticks a hypodermic needle into his lip. A young black boy, curled into fetal position, is passed-out under a sleeping bag. His baseball cap has fallen off his head and while he appears to be asleep, there is no way to tell if he’s dead, unless you want to touch him and no one wants to do that. Outside the parking garage, spoons, needles and matches are left on the ground like the remnants of a messy supper.  And this is the wealthy part of town.