This piece is a companion to an hour-long special episode of the program, BackStory with the American History Guys. The episode is called "Scales of Justice: A History of Supreme Court Nominations," and is currently available on ContentDepot and PRX.
In this piece, reporter Catherine Moore explores the earliest days of the Supreme Court, when Justices rode circuit, risking life and limb to bring their federal authority to America's hinterlands. In the process, they would help bind together a new nation. Helping her tell the story are historians Maeva Marcus and Peter Onuf.
This piece is offered at no cost. All we ask is that you use the language in the host intro/outro plugging the show, "BackStory."
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Piece Description
This piece is a companion to an hour-long special episode of the program, BackStory with the American History Guys. The episode is called "Scales of Justice: A History of Supreme Court Nominations," and is currently available on ContentDepot and PRX.
In this piece, reporter Catherine Moore explores the earliest days of the Supreme Court, when Justices rode circuit, risking life and limb to bring their federal authority to America's hinterlands. In the process, they would help bind together a new nation. Helping her tell the story are historians Maeva Marcus and Peter Onuf.
This piece is offered at no cost. All we ask is that you use the language in the host intro/outro plugging the show, "BackStory."
Transcript
PIECE SCRIPT:
CATHERINE MOORE: Imagine you’re having a property dispute with one of your neighbors. He sues you. Next thing you know, a Supreme Court Justice shows up in town to hand down the verdict! This might sound crazy, but in the early republic, it happened.
The Judiciary Act of 1789 divided the country into three circuits, but it didn’t assign any judges to those seats. The idea was that Supreme Court Justices themselves would spend about half the year travelling all over the country holding court. It was called circuit riding. In the words of one Senator, this system “carr[ied] Law to [the people’s] Homes, Courts to their Doors.” Sounds like democracy, right? Well, the Justices hated it. Two years after they started riding circuit, they wrote to George Washington, pleading for an end to the practice:
READING: [:23] We […] find the burdens laid upon us so excessive that we c...
Read the full transcript
Intro and Outro
INTRO:The nomination of Elena Kagan to be the newest justice on the Supreme Court is now in the hands of the U.S Senate. As lawmakers exercise their “advise and consent” role, they will consider such things as Ms. Kagan’s legal scholarship, her judicial philosophy, and how well she gets along with her colleagues. But back at the beginning of our nation’s history, the position of Supreme Court justice called for a different set of qualifications, based on what justices would do when they weren’t at the Court. Because back then, they spent only about half their time – at most – in the capital city. Reporter Catherine Moore has the story of what happened the rest of the time.
OUTRO:That’s Catherine Moore. You can learn more about circuit riding – and other little-known chapters in Supreme Court history – on the latest episode of the program Catherine works for, “BackStory with the American History Guys.”
That episode can be heard right here on [STATION] at [TIME] on [DAY.]
OR
That episode can be found at backstoryradio dot org.
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