Epstein Secrets

rely possible in a heterogeneous and divided democracy. A similar process is today underway with regard to equality for gays. Abortion is different. The Supreme Court’s decision, now more half a century old, changed few minds on this issue, because those who believe that abortion — or certain kinds of abortion — is t

r going to be neatly resolved in a pluralistic democracy; it is an ongoing tight rope walk that requires sensitivity from all sides. It also requires a Supreme Court willing to buck popular pressures in this highly sensitive area that the framers of our Constitution deliberately removed from majoritarian politics.

4.2.12 WC: 191694 I also knew that our Constitution said some things about religion. In our Yeshiva we learned mostly about the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of religion. But I started to read a little more about the Constitution and quick

nd would always be “a 75 student.” (I didn’t quite live up to his expectations, graduating with an average below 75). Moreover, my high school was a Yeshiva—a “parochial school” and I am not a parochial person. I did not respect most of my teachers, and the feeling was obviously mutual. Creativity was fro

The Supreme Court had a small basketball court on the fifth floor. The clerks called it “The Highest Court in the Land,” since it was directly above the Supreme Courtroom itself. Rumor had it that in previous years the clerks used to play basketball while the Justices were hearing arguments, and the sound of the bounci

r father’s deteriorating economic situation. She went to work as a bookkeeper, earning $12 a week. My father, who was not a good student, attended a Yeshiva high school in Williamsberg. It was called Torah V’Daas—ttranslated as Bible and Knowledge. He began to work during high school and never attended co

basis of race or ethnicity and so structure its selection process as to admit an essentially predetermined proportion of members of certain groups. The Supreme Court’s decision in Bakke accepted our argument against the sort of racial quotas employed by the medical school at issue, but it approved affirmative action

sanction [and] to persecution no assistance.” These powerful words written by the father of our country were displayed on the bulletin board of our Yeshiva as if they constituted the Magna Carta for American Jews.* Yet we saw bigotry all around us. We knew that no Jew had ever been elected president. No