Easter in Ordinary

A hallmark of a vital democracy is mature public conversation, often the antithesis to the coarseness of contemporary presidential campaigns. I offer the following list of worst Supreme Court decisions to introduce some context into the nearsightedness that often belies our judgment about our actual circumstance. We are nearsighted in that we often see recent events in a larger-than-life proportion compared to those further back.  Since its inception with the in 1789, only 112 persons have served on the nation’s highest court. One-hundred ten (98.2 percent) of those unelected jurists have been white, only two African-American. All men (96.4 percent), except four women. All Christian (93.6 percent), except eight Jews. In more than 225 years, from the first Supreme Court, presided over by Chief Justice John Jay, to the current court of Chief Justice John Roberts, the jurisprudence has ranged from inspired to banal. I am neither a lawyer nor have I played one on television, but I t...