Supreme Court Summer: Have Robe, Will Travel

UPDATE: Seth Stern, co-author of the forthcoming biography of Justice Brennan, wrote to offer a different take on the legend about Brennan's ferry reservations as a predicter of the Supreme Court's adjournment each summer. From his scrutiny of Brennan's papers, Stern says Brennan usually booked passage in February or March, long before anyone could know when the Court would finish its work in June or July. Another oft-told story about the Court bites the dust.

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Years ago, Supreme Court-watchers could predict when the Supreme Court would adjourn for the summer by learning when Justice William Brennan Jr. had booked passage on the ferry to Nantucket, where he had a summer home. Now, it is the justices' summer teaching or lecture gigs that chart when their summers begin, though they don't always mesh with the end of the term.

The Court is likely to sit for the last time before adjourning for the summer on Monday, June 29, which is when the Aspen Ideas Festival begins in Colorado, featuring appearances by Justice Stephen Breyer and retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

July will also find Justice Samuel Alito Jr. teaching in Innsbruck, Austria at St. Mary's University School of Law's summer program there. Last year, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. taught in the same program and was paid $15,000, according to his recently released financial disclosure form.  Speaking of Roberts, he is scheduled to teach a course in July on the history of the Supreme Court at the New England School of Law program in Galway, Ireland. 

Around the same time, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is scheduled to teach in Rome, hosted by Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Justice Anthony Kennedy, for his part, will return to Salzburg, Austria for his 20th straight year, teaching in McGeorge School of Law's summer program. Last year, McGeorge paid him $21,700. In August, Kennedy is also due to speak at the Chautauqua Institution's famed summer program in New York.

Comments

[John McLaughlin]

I knew Judge Bill Brennan & his son Bill Jr. at the Wharf Rats Club here in Nantucket. He had a great sense of humor among us members. We speak kindly of him & his son often. A little note of rememberance. Keep healthy, Brother Rat, John McLaughlin