Summary of Thomas Healy's The Great Dissenter

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The story of Holmes’s journey toward enlightenment is a tale of how he spent the majority of his life as a judge, and how he enjoyed it. He was a judge because it gave him the opportunity to indulge his taste for abstraction, while still being able to keep his hands clean.
#2 Holmes’s reputation was mixed in 1918. He was a great judge, but he was also a bit obscure, and he provided insufficient guidance to lower courts. He was beginning to feel as though his life’s work had been worthwhile.
#3 The war was a source of strain for Holmes, as he had no qualms about the United States’ entry into the European conflict. He avoided the newspapers, and tried not to talk or write about the war. He spent his time renewing his boyhood passion for art.
#4 The second case was an appeal from a Toledo newspaper that had been convicted of contempt by a federal judge for questioning his handling of a pending case. Holmes argued that the conviction was unjustified, but his argument was that federal law required the judge to submit the matter to a jury rather than render the verdict himself.

Sujets

• United States
• 20th century

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 28 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669369004
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Thomas Healy's The Great Dissent
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14 Insights from Chapter 15
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The story of Holmes’s journey toward enlightenment is a tale of how he spent the majority of his life as a judge, and how he enjoyed it. He was a judge because it gave him the opportunity to indulge his taste for abstraction, while still being able to keep his hands clean.

#2

Holmes’s reputation was mixed in 1918. He was a great judge, but he was also a bit obscure, and he provided insufficient guidance to lower courts. He was beginning to feel as though his life’s work had been worthwhile.

#3

The war was a source of strain for Holmes, as he had no qualms about the United States’ entry into the European conflict. He avoided the newspapers, and tried not to talk or write about the war. He spent his time renewing his boyhood passion for art.

#4

The second case was an appeal from a Toledo newspaper that had been convicted of contempt by a federal judge for questioning his handling of a pending case. Holmes argued that the conviction was unjustified, but his argument was that federal law required the judge to submit the matter to a jury rather than render the verdict himself.

#5

When he was done with the Supreme Court, he went to the Express Office to pick up an order of whiskey from Baltimore. Congress had banned alcohol in the capital, but the law was easy to get around by signing an affidavit before a notary public.

#6

On Sunday, Holmes and Fanny arrived at the station early. They had made this trip countless times before, and there was no reason to think that anything unusual would occur. Yet, the future of free speech was altered by what transpired over the next five hours.

#7

Judge Learned Hand was a federal judge in New York who was on his way to join his wife and children at their summer home in Cornish, New Hampshire. He was always nervous around Holmes, as he was an anxious and fearful person who had been raised to believe that he would never live up to his father’s standards.

#8

Hand had a very difficult time adjusting to life as a judge. He was extremely nervous and awkward in social situations, and he constantly doubted his abilities. But he eventually became one of the country’s leading judges, known for his erudition and careful reasoning.

#9

The postmaster at the time, Albert Burleson, was a racist who despised labor unions and the people who supported them. He began a campaign to root out magazines and newspapers that promoted socialist or radical ideas.

#10

Holmes had little interest in the kind of tolerance Hand was advocating. He believed in society’s right to impose its will on the individual, and he was not afraid to follow that principle to its logical conclusion.

#11

After Holmes escaped, Hand was left to think about what he should have said. He argued that skepticism should lead to a policy of forbearance.

#12

We must be tolerant of other people’s opinions, even if they differ from our own. We must always remember that opinions are just provisional hypotheses, and that the more they are tested, the more assurance we may have in them.

#13

Hand’s letter explained that he did not mean to abandon his convictions or refuse to fight for them. He meant to be tolerant of those who disagree with us because there is a chance we are wrong and they are right.

#14

The condition of every act is that it must be in accord with the structure of society. If you care enough to stop free speech, you wouldn’t care a damn for the suggestion that you were acting on a provisional hypothesis and might be wrong.

#15

When the letter arrived in Cornish, Hand must have been elated. Holmes had taken his argument seriously and was apparently won over. But Hand had only begun his campaign.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Beverly Farms was a world away from Washington. It was a rambling brown Victorian house with a covered porch and eight bedrooms. Perched on a slight rise next to a stand of pines, it was only a few hundred yards from the crescent of white sand known as West Beach.

#2

Holmes had a platonic relationship with Laski, a young professor at Harvard Law School. They wrote each other seventeen letters in the first two months alone, and Laski came to visit him in Beverly Farms.

#3

The contrast in appearance between Laski and Holmes was not just superficial. It was the physical manifestation of a stark difference in pedigree. Laski was New England blue blood through and through, while Holmes was Jewish immigrant from Poland.

#4

Holmes and Laski’s political views were completely different. Holmes was a lifelong Republican, while Laski was a militant suffragist and a revolutionary syndicalist. Laski never backed down from his beliefs, even when he was tailoring his responses to Holmes.

#5