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The County Seat Lawyer

The county-seat lawyer, counsellor to railroads and to Negroes, to bakers and to poor whites, who always gave to each the best there was in him- and was willing to admit that his best was good. That lawyer has been an American institution- about the same in South and North and East and West.

A Presidential Legal Opinion

Justice Jackson's essay, A Presidential Legal Opinion, reveals for the first time President Franklin Roosevelt's personal opinions, in FDR's own words, regarding the constitutionality of articles of the Lend Lease Act.

Why Learned and Augustus Hand Became Great

"These men found their highest satisfaction in judicial work. It fulfilled their every ambition. They put all they had into it-they have not shirked even its drudgery. They wrote their opinions with no appeal for applause and sought only to merit the ultimate approval of their profession. They have not been looking over their shoulders to see whom they please. They have represented an independent and intellectually honest judiciary at its best. And the test of an independent judiciary is a simple one-the one you would apply in choosing an umpire for a baseball game. What do you ask of him? You do not ask that he shall never make a mistake or always agree with you, or always support the home team. You want an umpire who calls them as he sees them. And that is what the profession has admired in the Hands."