Abstract
In the past fifty years, the figure of the Supreme Court Justice has emerged as a frequent character in novels, plays, and films. Following each of three major events—the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the success of The Brethren with a large lay audience, and the controversial rejection of Robert Bork's nomination—the Court became increasingly familiar to the public as a powerful institution. This heightened popular awareness of the Court's role in American life is reflected in a series of fictional works presenting Supreme Court Justices engaged in judicial conduct. Although the Court itself remains a respected institution in these works, its Justices undergo a decline from the reverential treatment of Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Magnificent Yankee through mildly critical portraits of stuffy or political judges to the most recent and most severely critical representations of deeply flawed individuals in the popular literary genre of the legal thriller.
How to Cite
39 Ariz. L. Rev. 151 (1997)
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