Book Club

So  I have a group of friends at work that have been meeting up every month or so for drinks and dinner. Invariably the conversation will turn to the books we are reading; both good and bad. As the New Year often extracts resolutions from even the most resolute, we decided to make it official and call a shovel a shovel. We now have a book club.

In the true spirit of immediately breaking our resolution, our first joint reading assignment is no book at all. Rather, we are reading through some of the land mark cases of the US Supreme Court. Our aim, amidst all the disinformation and daily cycle of outrage, is to return to first principles and primary sources. Here is our list for February’s meeting:

• Plessy v Ferguson - 1869
• Brown v Board of Education - 1952
• Griswold v Connecticut - 1965
• Loving v Virginia - 1967
• Roe v Wade - 1973
• Obergefell V Hodges - 2015
• Lawrence v Texas - 2003

This has been slow going for me. Normally I am in a flow state when reading. It takes actual effort to break out. This has been the opposite. It is a struggle to parse the leagalize. To match defendant and appellant. To follow the references to past cases and foundation of other court decisions. But at the same time, it has been worth the effort. To see the arc of history slowly bend towards justice...if you will allow me the paraphrase.

I would never call this pleasure reading, but I would recommend you pick a few topics near and dear to your heart. Find out what a few relevant, key cases are and read them.