They Often Are Half Obscure: The Rights of the Individual and the Legacy of Oliver W. Holmes

April 9, 1992

ITEM DETAILS

Type: Law review article, Speech

Source: San Diego L. Rev.

Citation: 29 San Diego L. Rev. 385 (1992)

Physical location/Show name: University of San Diego

Occasion: Nathaniel L. Nathanson Memorial Lecture

Date is approximate: No

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They Often Are Half Obscure: The Rights of the Individual and the Legacy of Oliver W. Holmes

SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR*

These remarks were delivered April 9, 1992 at the Nathaniel L. Nathanson Memorial Lecture series at the University of San Diego and are published here with only minor revisions. The usual academic ornamentation by way of footnotes has been added to enable interested persons to find the sources referred to in the lecture.

Most of us like to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. I am no exception, and today it is my purpose to celebrate and note an important anniversary. It is sixty years since one of my predecessors, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, retired from his duties at the Supreme Court. His life and his work have been celebrated often and with good reason. Let me explain why.

Many believe that one of the most significant contributions made by Western legal doctrine is the concept of enlisting the judiciary as a partner in drawing the line between the individual and the power of the state. Justice Holmes was the chief architect of the application of our Bill of Rights to the states, and he set the standards for constitutional decision making. He used his incredible intellect to lay bare the policy choices in constitutional cases. He taught us that "the life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience" 1 and that the Constitution "does not enact Mr. Herbert Spencer's Social Statics." 2

In 1901, a year before he took his seat on the Supreme Court

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