Professor Larson Publishes Essay on Justice Vinson on SCOTUSblog

Professor Carlton Larson has published an essay on SCOTUSblog, the U.S. Supreme Court blog sponsored by Bloomberg Law, exploring the topic of "What if Chief Justice Fred Vinson had not died in 1953?"  Larson first approached the question as part of a symposium on counterfactuals in constitutional history hosted by Indiana Law Review, and published a paper on the subject in that journal last year.

The essay focuses on the question of "what would have happened to constitutional law and the Supreme Court if Fred Vinson, and not Earl Warren, had presided over the final decision in Brown?" Professor Larson concludes that "Most likely, Vinson would have authored a unanimous opinion in Brown invalidating segregation in public schools.  Vinson, not Warren, would have been the author of one of the Court's most significant decisions, guaranteeing him instant historical immortality and a place among our nation's most esteemed Chief Justices."

Carlton Larson's research interests focus on constitutional law and legal history, with a strong emphasis on the 18th century.

"What if Chief Justice Fred Vinson had not died in 1953?"

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