Extrajudicial Reticence: Nine Justices Take a Brief Break from Constitutional Commentary

Abstract

For a long time, Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court felt free to express their views about the Constitution not only in their judicial opinions, but also in their off-the-bench writing. There came a time, however, when they seemingly did not feel so free – just briefly, in 1991. And then things returned to normal. This article sketches the background and context of that stop-and-start, and then speculates about how and why it happened.

Keywords: Life Magazine, William Rehnquist, Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, coordination, lobbying, boycotting, marketing

JEL Classification: K40