An Appeal to Books

Abstract

This feels a fit, even urgent, moment to celebrate our books and the role they play vis-à-vis the law, the courts, and the truth. As this issue goes to print, our nation’s highest court faces forceful criticism that some of its most significant decisions have been detached from objective fact. In recent Terms, the Supreme Court’s majority has doubled down on deciding major constitutional questions based on “history and tradition”—that is, the majority’s understanding of what the nation was like centuries ago. Just as quickly as these justices praised the objectivity of their fealty to history, they met widespread rebuke from historians. These actual experts in history observed that the Court’s work fails basic standards for historical analysis and distorts historical facts toward a particular end. This occurs at a time when public confidence in the Supreme Court is at an all-time low, and concern for the spread of misinformation is high and rising.