OSHER 372 - The Supreme Court: Great Dissents and Dissenters

"Certainty and unanimity in the law are possible only under a fascist or communist system, where, indeed, they are indispensable. ... I do not know of any salvation for society except through eccentrics, misfits, dissenters, people who protest." ~ Justice William O. Douglas. This course will focus on Supreme Court dissents that have moved American jurisprudence. We will meet a number of the dissenters, reading their dissents in the context of the cases of which those dissents are a part. Among the 115 justices who have served the Court since 1789, we will look closely at just a few, including John Marshall Harlan, Louis Brandeis, Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, Antonin Scalia, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg.