The Evolution of the Supreme Court from the Founding to 2018

Description

A great deal has changed since Alexander Hamilton described the Supreme Court in Federalist Paper No. 78 as the “least dangerous branch” of the national government. The first Chief Justice, John Jay, resigned his position after concluding that he could be more influential as a public official in his home state of New York. Today, political parties understand that control of the Judicial Department can be as important as control of the Executive and Legislative Departments. The Supreme Court regularly rules on the constitutionality of congressional, presidential and state action, something that rarely occurred during the first 100 years of the republic. Dr. David Marion, Elliott Emeritus Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, will compare what the delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 inserted into Article III of the Constitution about a national judicial department with the Supreme Court of 2018.