Basic Information

The architect Cass Gilbert had grand ambitions for his design of a new home for the Supreme Court--what he called "the greatest tribunal in the world, one of the three great elements of our national government." Gilbert knew that the approach to the Court, as much as the structure itself, would define the experience of the building, but the site presented a challenge. Other exalted Washington edifices--the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial--inspired awe with their processional approaches. But in 1928 Congress had designated for the Court a cramped and asymmetrical plot of land, wedged tightly between the Capitol and the Library of Congress. How could Gilbert convey to visitors the magnitude and importance of the judicial process taking place within the Court's walls?
The answer, he decided, was steps. Gilbert pushed back the wings of the building, so that the public face of the building would be a portico with a massive imposing stairway. Visitors would not have to walk a long distance to enter, but few would forget the experience of mounting those forty-four steps to the double row of eight massive columns supporting the roof. The walk up the stairs would be the central symbolic experience of the Supreme Court, a physical manifestation of the American march to justice. The stairs separated the Court from the everyday world--and especially from the earthly concerns of the politicians in the Capitol-- and announced that the justices would operate, literally, on a higher plane. (Toobin, Jeffrey. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. New York: Anchor Books, 2008.)

Thursday, May 13, 2010

What is Going On?




A group of 10 Republican delegates and senators in the Virginia General Assembly are engaging themselved in the battle over President Obama's nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan. They want Democratic Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner to question Kagan about her opposition to military recruiting on campus during her career as dean of Harvard Law School.

Kagan opposed allowing military recruiters on campus because she believed the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy for gay service members violated Harvard's nondiscrimination policy- I believe that is wrong considering that it is not an act of discrimination, it is freedom of expression.

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