Conversations with RBG: Ruth Bader Gins... A source page for quotes linked to Jeffrey Rosen. 0 quotes
“In my long life, I have seen many changes. Changes for the better. The most important is that we are not using the talent of all the people, not just half of them.” LawFeminismEqualityLawyerCivil RightsChangesRbgRuth Bader Ginsberg Book:Conversations with RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law Source: Conversations with RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law
“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.” ThinkingFactsGovernmentAnswersCriticsConsistent Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“Basically [Louise] Brandeis was a Jeffersonian. And you say the timing is great, and it is in a lot of senses, except not for [Tomas] Jefferson, because this is a Hamiltonian moment, and he's the rock star of the minute with a great musical.” MomentsStarsMinutesRocksMusicalSensesTimingRock StarGreat MusicTomas Jefferson Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“[Tomas] Jefferson is more out of fashion, both because of his views on race, where he's properly questioned, that part of his legacy, but also because the libertarian critique of bigness in business and government, the idea that size is a danger is something that's shared on the right when it comes to government and on the left when it comes to corporations, but not both.” IdeasGovernmentLeftViewsRaceFashionDangerSizeLibertarianLegacyCorporationsCritiqueTomas Jefferson Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“[Louis] Brandeis, like [Tomas] Jefferson, is an equal opportunity critic of bigness. And he, like Jefferson, sees American history as this incredible clash between small producers, farmers, and small business people on the one hand, and wicked oligarchs and financiers and monopolists on the other.” PeopleHandsOpportunityEqualCriticsIncrediblesProducersWickedFarmersAmerican HistorySmall BusinessClashEqual OpportunityFinanciersLouis BrandeisTomas Jefferson Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“That strain of anti-monopoly crusading egalitarianism really runs throughout American history from [Tomas] Jefferson to Woodrow Wilson, that finds its apotheosis in [Louis] Brandeis, continues through the New Deal, but then it sort of peters out in the '60s because progressives in particular become more interested in extending equality to minorities, and women, and other excluded groups, and little more suspicious of these old white guys, often from the south, who were crusaders against monopolies.” LittlesRunningGuyWhiteDealsGroupsParticularSouthMinoritiesPeterAmerican HistoryStrainMonopolySuspiciousExcludedExtendingWilsonEgalitarianismNew DealWhite GuysLouis BrandeisApotheosisTomas Jefferson Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“Do you think Bernie Sanders, for example, is citing Theodore Roosevelt as the progenitor of his critique of the banks when actually Roosevelt wanted to keep the banks together and regulate them.” ThinkingWantedTogetherExampleCritiqueCitingTheodore Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“[Oliver Wendell] Holmes never believed in the truth and morality of the laws he was upholding. He said, "I loathe the thick-fingered clowns we call the people."” PeopleSaidLawMoralityThickClownHolmesLoathe Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“[Louis] Brandeis had a very distinctive vision of political economy that he persuaded Woodrow Wilson to adopt in the 1912 election and that he largely enacted from the bench.” PoliticalVisionEconomyElectionBenchesDistinctiveWilsonPolitical EconomyLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“[Louis] Brandeis is often painted as an acolyte of judicial restraint, or the view that judges should uphold laws whether or not they like them.” ShouldLawViewsJudgingRestraintJudicialLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“I came to believe that actually [Louis] Brandeis tended to uphold laws that he liked and strike down those that he didn't, generally strike down centralizing federal agencies in the New Deal, and uphold state economic experimentation.” BelieveStatesLawDealsEconomicStrikesAgencyExperimentationNew DealLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“[Louis Brandeis] at the age of 57 decided to become the head of the American Zionist movement was more influential than anyone else in the 20th century in persuading Woodrow Wilson to recognize a Jewish homeland in Palestine.” AgeCenturyMovementDecided20th CenturyPalestineInfluentialHomelandWilsonZionistPersuadingLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“He [Louis Brandais] did believe in the states famously as laboratories of democracy, to use that resonant phrase that Tea Party and conservative libertarians have embraced today because he loves state experimentation.” BelieveStatesUseTodayPartyDemocracyConservativeLibertarianTeaPhrasesLaboratoryTea PartyExperimentation Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“He's [Louis Brandais] so suspicious of bigness in government as well as business that he mistrusts even really top-down reforms at the state level. The most inspiring part of his legacy to me is his belief in the imperative and duty of self-education on behalf of citizens.” WellsSelfStatesGovernmentBeliefLevelsDutyCitizensReformLegacyBehalfImperativesSuspiciousSelf EducationMistrustTop DownMost Inspiring Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“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.” IfsNeedsMomentsFactsUseSoundChallengesDemocracyCitizensDemocraticEducatedDefinedLeisureParticipationTime Away Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“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.” KnowsWritingFeltWatchesDemocracyInformationTvsCatDown AndVideoDamnAnxiousBiographiesTemptedUnreasonableNetflixDamn ThingsLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“[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.” IfsMindReasonSidesArgumentLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“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.” MindBookChangedBalanceSpeechIntellectualDignityPrivacyScholarFree SpeechGreat BookLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“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.” ThinkingTryingAgeMovingJusticeDecisionWonderfulConstitutionCourtChiefsDigitalTranslateWarrantsDigital AgeCellphoneChief Justice Author: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.” IfsThinkingMindSaidReasonLightAgeValuesChallengesJusticeConcernedCurrentsGuidesTranslateNew AgeFramersLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“I don't think he would have had any trouble answering Justice Sonia Sotomayor's excellent challenge in a case involving GPS surveillance. She said we need an alternative to this whole way of thinking about the privacy now which says that when you give data to a third party, you have no expectations of privacy. And [Louis] Brandeis would have said nonsense, of course you have expectations of privacy because it's intellectual privacy that has to be protected. That's my attempt to channel him on some of those privacy questions.” ThinkingWayNeedsGivingSaidWholeCoursesChallengesJusticePartyCasesTroubleIntellectualExpectationsThirdsDataAlternativesExcellentNonsensePrivacyProtectedWay Of ThinkingSurveillanceInvolvingThird PartiesGpsLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“I'd say that [Louis] Brandeis practiced a kind of a "living originalism," to use the title of Jack Balkin's great book. He said you start with the paradigm case, which in the case of the Fourth Amendment was these general warrants or writs of assistance, but you define it at a level of abstraction that you can take it into our age and make it our own.” KindSaidBookUseAgeLevelsCasesTitlesAmendmentsFourthAssistanceAbstractionParadigmGreat BookWarrantsFourth AmendmentLouis BrandeisWrits Of Assistance Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“[Louis Brandeis] believes in natural rights of speech and liberty and the right to pursue happiness.” BelieveNaturalLibertyRightsSpeechPursueNatural RightsLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“For [Louis] Brandeis, it's not a technical question of channeling what would James Madison say. It's how do we take these inherent human natural rights of liberty and translate them into an age of new technolog” HumansAgeNaturalLibertyRightsInherentTranslateChannelingMadisonNatural RightsLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“He [Louis Brandeis] would have not had any patience with that great debate which you're right to kind of signal between Justice Scalia and Justice Alito about do you need a physical trespass into the home or onto the carriage in order to trigger the values of the Fourth Amendment.” NeedsKindHomeValuesOrderJusticeDebateAmendmentsFourthSignalsTriggersCarriagesFourth AmendmentLouis BrandeisJustice Scalia Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“We need to protect the same amount of cognitive liberty in an age where you can invade people's thoughts without physically intruding into their homes than you did at the time of the framing.” PeopleNeedsHomeAgeLibertyAmountProtectCognitiveFraming Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“I think he's [Louis Brandeis] a great model for progressive justices today who want to answer the originalists. It's not that the original paradigm cases are irrelevant, but you have to focus on the values the framers were trying to protect, not on the means with which those values were invaded in the 18th century.” ThinkingWantTryingMeanTodayValuesJusticeAnswersCasesFocusCenturyProtectModelsOriginalsProgressiveIrrelevantParadigm18th CenturyFramersLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“The historical resonances are sharp. [Louis] Brandeis is nominated on Jan. 28, 1916. Confirmed on June 1. Waits 125 days between nomination and confirmation, which remains an unbroken record, although Merrick Garland will surpass it in July, if my math is right. Anti-Semitism was definitely not the central reason for the opposition, which tended to focus more on his anti-corporate radicalism, but it was a theme.” IfsReasonWaitingRecordsFocusRemainsHistoricalMathCorporateThemeOppositionJuneJulyResonanceAnti SemitismNominationsUnbrokenConfirmationGarlandsRadicalismLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“Initially the papers said that the fact that Louis Brandeis was picked because he was Jewish. The New York Sun said he's the first Jew ever picked for the bench - a long and bitter fight expected in the Senate over confirmation.” FirstsLongSaidFactsFightingSunNew YorkPaperJewExpectedBitterSenatePapersBenchesConfirmationLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“William Howard Taft, who he embarrassed in these congressional hearings, attacks him as an emotionalist and a socialist and a cosmopolitan in terms that kind of have an anti-Semitic overtone. And even the pro-Brandeis press supported him in terms that really seem creepy today. There's this piece from Life magazine. It says, "Mr. Brandeis is a Jew. And until now there's never been a Jew on the Supreme Court. Perhaps it's time we have one."” KindSeemsTodayTermPiecesCourtPressesJewHearingSupremeMagazinesSocialistEmbarrassedSupreme CourtCreepyAnti SemiticTaft Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“They said, OK, nine [Louis] Brandeis's is too much, but one is OK. So, with friends like that, and so forth. But, yes, the idea that because he was Jewish he would rule a particular way was an ugly undercurrent of the hearings, which resonates with current claims that a judge can't be impartial because of his or her background or ethnicity or race. It's, I guess, a small comfort that in the end the Brandeis vote wasn't close.” WaySaidIdeasEndsRaceToo MuchParticularJudgingComfortVoteClaimsCurrentsUglyHearingNineBackgroundsThey SaidEthnicityLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“The tyranny of Harvard and Yale is another thing that transcends this problem of the set point. But what's so striking about [Louis] Brandeis is he had this vision of cultural pluralism that completely gave the lie to the idea that there was any inconsistency between being Jewish or being a woman or being African American and being fully American.” IdeasProblemLyingVisionTyrannyAfrican AmericanHarvardBeing A WomanYaleInconsistencyPluralismLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“Louis Brandeis started off by embracing the Theodore Roosevelt notion that hyphenated Americanism was unpatriotic. You couldn't have dual loyalties. But then he thinks and he reads and he becomes the head of the American Zionist movement after having previously been a secular Jew in this amazing intellectual evolution.” ThinkingMovementEvolutionIntellectualNotionJewLoyaltySecularZionistAmericanismTheodoreUnpatrioticLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“And he [Louis Brandeis] talks to his young acolyte, Horace Kallen, who wrote this beautiful book called Cultural Pluralism, and he comes to believe that by being better Jews, or better members of our ethnic group, we can be better Americans, because America is like an orchestra in which identity is defined by the diversity of perspectives that we bring to the table.” BelieveBookAmericaBeautifulYoungGroupsIdentityPerspectiveMembersDiversityTablesJewDefinedOrchestraPluralismEthnic GroupsLouis BrandeisBeautiful Books Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“Louis Brandeis actually changes his mind about women's suffrage because he works with these brilliant women in the women's suffrage movement like Josephine Goldmark, his sister-in-law, where he writes a Brandeis brief which convinced the court to uphold maximum hour laws for women by collecting all these facts and empirical evidence.” WritingMindFactsLawHoursMovementEvidenceCourtConvincedBrilliantMaximumCollectingIn-lawsSuffrageSister In LawLouis BrandeisWomen's SuffrageEmpirical EvidenceSuffrage Movement Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“For [Louis] Brandeis, you know, ethnicity and background are much less important than facts and reason. And he believes that far from wanting to efface our diversity of perspectives, we have to embrace it because that makes us more American, not less. In that sense, he's incredibly modern in an age of cultural pluralism. And it is disappointing for just the reasons you say that not everyone has embraced his pluralistic vision.” KnowsBelieveImportantReasonFactsAgeVisionModernPerspectiveDiversityEmbraceBackgroundsDisappointingEthnicityPluralismLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“Louis Brandeis was not a racist like Woodrow Wilson.” RacistWilsonLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“Unlike [Woodrow] Wilson, Louis Brandeis did not support the segregation of the federal government. He was personally courteous to African Americans. He advised them and advised the head of Howard University to create a good law school. And that inspired Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall in their path-breaking work on behalf of desegregation.” GovernmentSchoolLawSupportPathInspiredUniversityAfrican AmericanFederal GovernmentBehalfSegregationWilsonLaw SchoolHoustonCourteousHamiltonLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“Louis Brandeis beloved uncle, Lewis Dembitz, was an ardent abolitionist. His mother was an abolitionist in Kentucky at a time when Brandeis remembered hearing the shot from the confederate soldiers after the second battle of Bull Run. Amazing to think that he heard that and I studied with one of his last law clerks in college. And that encapsulates almost all of American history.” ThinkingRunningLastsLawMotherHeardCollegeBattleShotsSoldierHearingRememberedBelovedAmerican HistoryUnclesBullsArdentClerksKentuckyConfederateAbolitionistLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“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.” KnowsShouldOpportunityPartyDemocratLawyerAfrican AmericanSouthernSupportiveSegregationLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“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.” BookRepublicanDemocratHookSegregationNew BooksTheodoreLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“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.” PeopleAbleJewDevotionAfrican AmericanAbstractTranslateUnfortunateDescendantsPluralismLouis BrandeisRacial Equality Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“Justice Jefferson has a blind spot on race. You know, more than a blind spot. A terrible blemish on his legacy, slavery, for which he's properly excoriated. So, I think [Louis] Brandeis has done this as well.” ThinkingKnowsWellsDoneJusticeRaceTerribleSlaveryBlindSpotsLegacyBlind SpotsLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“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.” WritingOpinionGoneSawsTenToolsDemocraticConvincingLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“When I was in law school I was taught that the great writers were people like [Oliver Wendell] Holmes Jr. and [Benjamin N.] Cardozo. But you go back and read their prose and it's sort of perfumed and very ornate and show-offy. And they're constantly striving for these abstractions that seem archaic nowadays.” PeopleShowsSeemsSchoolLawTaughtStriveProseAbstractionIn-lawsHolmesGreat WritersLaw School Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“[Louis] Brandeis is writing directly to us. His clear voice comes through a century and he's speaking to us and he's galvanizing us and he's persuading us. And that's why I love to read the prose.” WritingVoiceClearCenturyProsePersuadingLove To ReadLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“[Louis] Brandeis improves the prose. He simplifies it and perfects the balance of the sentence so it becomes even more memorable and aphoristic.” BalanceSentencesMemorableProseSimplifyLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“Why I find Louis Brandeis so exciting and inspiring because he's teaching us - good legal writing is not a matter of taste, it's a matter of connection with fellow citizens and of democratic education.” WritingMatterTeachingCitizensTasteConnectionsExcitingFellowsDemocraticLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“Louis Brandeis really inspired me to write this book [Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet]. It was a crazy deadline. The editor said I'd miss the hundredth anniversary unless I pumped the thing out in six months, because I'd been delaying and dilly dallying for so long. So he both inspired me to get up early and write.” WritingLongSaidBookCrazyMissingMonthsSixInspiredGet UpProphetEditorsSix MonthsDeadlineUp EarlyLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen
“But as I wrote the book [Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet], I tried to write it as clearly and directly and passionately as possible just thinking of communicating to readers who might want to learn about this great thinker and be inspired by him as I was.” ThinkingWantWritingBookMightReaderInspiredCommunicateProphetThinkerBe InspiredGreat Thinkers Author:Jeffrey Rosen
