Equal Justice Under Law — the inscription on the Supreme Court of the United States sets the standard bluntly. Whether America has lived up to those four words is the story of constitutional history.
The Supreme Court did not have its own building until 1935. Before that, it met in the Capitol building — in various committee rooms, the Senate chamber, and even the Capitol basement. Chief Justice William Howard Taft, the only person to serve as both president and Chief Justice, lobbied for decades to give the Court a permanent home. He saw the plans completed but died before the building opened.
The building is neoclassical marble — sixteen Corinthian columns on the facade, a pediment sculpture showing allegorical figures of Liberty, Order, and Authority. Every marble surface came from a different quarry: Vermont marble for the exterior, Georgia marble for the Great Hall, Alabama marble for the courtroom.
Nine justices sit behind the long mahogany bench in the courtroom above. The Court hears roughly seventy to eighty cases per year, selected from the eight thousand petitions it receives. Its decisions — on civil rights, abortion, the power of the presidency, the rights of the accused — have shaped American life as profoundly as any act of Congress.
Landmark cases decided in that building: Dred Scott, which held that Black people could never be citizens. Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld segregation. Brown v. Board of Education, which overturned it. Roe v. Wade, which established abortion rights. Citizens United, which transformed campaign finance. The decisions flow in every direction — the Court is not the last word, but it often feels like it.