Linda Greenhouse

As Kennedy Went

Justice Anthony Kennedy often confounded Supreme Court observers with his seemingly unpredictable opinions, but during the years when a majority could be achieved only through some measure of compromise, he wielded enormous power over the Constitution’s contemporary meaning.

Abortion’s Long History

Abortion has been an inescapable fact of life for millennia. The question is, why do women gain or lose control over their reproductive lives at different times in history?

How Brown Came North and Failed

The effort to desegregate Detroit’s public schools required not just the courts but a social movement that could speak effectively about the barriers that Black people faced before it could begin to seek redress.

Trump at the Supreme Court

“The amateurish nature of many of the first Trump administration’s encounters with the Supreme Court is highly likely to be replaced by a more disciplined and strategic approach.”

The Return of Trump—I

On losers, fear, the Supreme Court, the end of the FDR era, antisystemic times, and words without consequences. 

Are Sheriffs Above the Law?

County sheriffs are useful to the right. They appear regularly as talking heads on conservative media, especially on the subject of immigration. Many vignettes of sheriffs in action are dramatic and alarming. But how representative are they?

The Constant Presence of Fear

The anthropologist Laurence Ralph has long written about the search for meaning in lives beset by conflict and crisis. In Sito, his new book about the murder of a nineteen-year-old relative, one of the seekers turns out to be Ralph himself.

Social Progress & the Courts

For decades Gerald Rosenberg, author of The Hollow Hope, has argued that courts labor under structural constraints that will almost always deprive them of the ability to bring about significant change. He would be entitled to a triumphant “I told you so” but for one dramatic development: the 2015 Supreme Court decision that recognized a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

An Unhealthy Definition of Rights

For the new majority on the Supreme Court, religious liberty takes precedence over the government’s power to protect public health.

Why Aren’t Cops Held to Account?

Decades of Supreme Court decisions have converted qualified immunity from a commonsense rule into a powerful doctrine that deprives people injured by police misconduct of recourse.

Not How He Wanted to Be Remembered

Two decades passed before the ghosts of the Rosenbergs came back to haunt Irving Kaufman, the judge who sentenced them to death.

Victimhood and Vengeance

The contemporary rise of Christian nationalism in the US is a reactionary response to the country’s liberalization over the past half-century.

A Powerful, Forgotten Dissent

Stephen Breyer’s dissent in the Supreme Court’s Parents Involved case has proved prophetic about the decision’s consequences for racial integration in public schools.

Should We Reform the Court?

A recent report commissioned by President Biden lets the public in on the fact that the legal academy is close to giving up on the Supreme Court.

Grievance Conservatives Are Here to Stay

What accounts for the paradox of religious ascendance over an ever more secular American society?

The Supreme Court We Need

The First and Last of Her Kind

The legal academy has tended to be dismissive of Sandra Day O’Connor, arguing that she had no overarching theory of constitutional interpretation. But the Supreme Court is not a law school faculty workshop. She saw herself as a problem-solver.

The Impeachment Question

Although the risks of launching a failed impeachment are obvious, there are clear benefits as well.

Wrongfully Convicted

Who Killed the ERA?

Was the amendment the cause of polarization or its victim? Or did it turn out to be something else: a catalyst for positive change?