What is so inspiring about [Louis] Brandeis's writing is he saw it as a tool for democratic education. He would say things like the opinion is now convincing, now can we make it more instructive, after he'd gone through ten drafts. Jeffrey Rosen More Quotes by Jeffrey Rosen More Quotes From Jeffrey Rosen I think [Louis] Brandeis challenges all of the current justices. As he said, "If we would guide by the light of reason, we must let our minds be bold." You have to take the values that the framers were concerned about and translate them into this new age. Jeffrey Rosen light justice thinking I think even though the court is moving toward trying to translate the Constitution into a digital age, there was that wonderful unanimous decision that Chief Justice Roberts wrote saying you can't search a cellphone on arrest without a warrant. Jeffrey Rosen justice moving thinking I was very much influenced by a great book by the scholar Neil Richards called Intellectual Privacy, that [Louis] Brandeis changed his mind on the proper balance between dignity and free speech. Jeffrey Rosen intellectual mind book [Louis Brandeis] insisted on the necessity of public reason, which he thought could only be achieved if all of us just take the time to inform ourselves about the best arguments on all sides of questions so that we can make up our own minds. Jeffrey Rosen argument mind sides Whenever I felt tempted to, I don’t know, watch cat videos or bad Netflix TV instead of writing this Brandeis biography, I thought of his stern but kindly visage and buckled down and wrote the damn thing, because there’s so much information out there, and these are such anxious times in democracy, such unreasonable times. Jeffrey Rosen democracy cat writing It can sound trite if you just say citizens need to be educated for democracy to work, but for him it wasn't trite. It was really this strenuous challenge to citizens to use their moments of leisure, which he defined as time away from work, to collect the facts that were necessary for full democratic participation. Jeffrey Rosen democracy challenges sound I think the answer has to do with the fact that [Louis D.] Brandeis was a consistent critic of bigness in business and in government. Jeffrey Rosen government answers thinking It's unfortunate that [Louis] Brandeis was not able to translate or abstract his devotion to cultural pluralism and racial equality as he put it for Jews to enslave people and their descendants and to African Americans. Jeffrey Rosen pluralism african-american people We shouldn't let the Republicans off the hook. Theodore Roosevelt, we learned from Jeff Cowan's new book, was just as bad as certainly [Louis] Brandeis was, or many Democrats were on the question of segregation. Jeffrey Rosen hook republican book Louis Brandeis never had the opportunity - or he never sought the opportunity I should say - to work closely with African American lawyers. He was also a Southern Democrat, you know, at a time when both parties were supportive of segregation. Jeffrey Rosen southern party opportunity Richard Nixon had to turn over arguably privileged materials, here there's no claim of executive privilege, the tax returns were before Richard Nixon was president, Richard Nixon's not going to be arrested. Jeffrey Rosen politics If kindness and humility are in short supply outside the halls of justice, that's all the more reason to set a good example. Jeffrey Rosen politics Thomas Jefferson said men were created equal, but the original Constitution betrayed that promise by allowing for slavery, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments were designed to enshrine Lincoln's promise of a new America. Jeffrey Rosen top-news With those two exceptions, everyone who was physically present in United States was thought to be under its jurisdiction, there are numerous The Supreme Court cases that reaffirm that understanding, and almost as importantly, there are lots of congressional statutes that assume birthright citizenship. Jeffrey Rosen top-news
