Season 2, Episode 42 (Show 94): Zelig On the Court – Special Guest Brad Snyder

October 12, 2022

Brad Snyder, biographer of Justice Felix Frankfurter, is back with us for a discussion of Frankfurter’s years on the Supreme Court and a look at how his method of judicial restraint stacks up against Originalism, through the lens of the landmark cases of his era.

Our judicial Zelig, Felix Frankfurter, continues to grab our spotlight as his biographer, Brad Snyder, joins us again – this time, as a sitting Justice.  The many landmark cases that came Frankfurter’s way on the Supreme Court allow us to contrast his method of jurisprudence – be it “Thayerism,” “judicial restraint,” or something else – with originalism.  This means that Hugo Black, Frankfurter’s colleague on the Court (it’s complicated), takes the stage as well, as we look at case after case and see how these different approaches, and their wielders, fare.