This time of year back in 1916, Senate confirmation hearings were beginning for Louis D. Brandeis. After a lengthy confirmation process, Brandeis was confirmed as the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice, and went on to write landmark opinions on free speech, privacy, and more. In this 2016 program, National Constitution Center President Jeffrey Rosen and Brandeis scholars Philippa Strum and Melvin Urofsky explain why Brandeis’ forward-thinking wisdom still matters today. They celebrated the launch of Jeff’s book Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet – part of the Jewish Lives biography series. Jeff recently discussed the book on the Jewish Lives podcast, and you can listen to that interview here.
FULL PODCAST
PARTICIPANTS
Melvin Urofsky is Professor of Law & Public Policy and Professor Emeritus of History at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Before joining VCU as chair of the History Department in 1974, he taught at the Ohio State University (1964-1967) and the State University of New York at Albany (1967-1974). From 1995-2003, he served as the director of the doctoral program in Public Policy & Administration at VCU. He is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia. Among the more than 50 books he has either written or edited are Louis D. Brandeis: A Life (2009) and seven volumes of the Letters of Louis D. Brandeis (with David W. Levy).
Philippa Strum is Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Center’s former Director of the Division of United States Studies as well as Broeklundian Professor of Political Science Emerita, City University of New York. After teaching political science at City University of New York for more than two decades, Dr. Strum became a visiting professor of constitutional law and civil liberties at Wayne State University Law School. She has also taught at numerous other universities around the world. In 1994 she received the Hughes-Gossett Award for scholarly writing about the U.S. Supreme Court. Among her many published works is the book Louis D. Brandeis: Justice for the People (1984).
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet by Jeffrey Rosen
- The Jewish Lives Podcast - a partnership of Yale University Press and the Leon D. Black Foundation
- Justice Brandeis’ concurring opinion in Whitney v. California (1927)
This episode was engineered by David Stotz and produced by Jackie McDermott and Tanaya Tauber.
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