In the current New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin profiles the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and captures, in a single sentence, his judicial philosophy:
In every major case since he became the nation’s seventeenth Chief Justice, Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff.
Okay, "judicial philosophy" is too exalted. More like his policy preferences. I recommend the whole article. It includes Roberts's high-school graduation picture, which, I regret to say, reminds me of my own.
And, in the category of recommended reading not available on the Web, the newsletter from my daughter's school--Burroughs Community School in south Minneapolis--consists mainly of profiles of first-year teachers written by fifth-graders. Here is a passage from the one devoted to Ms. Kilgore, by Rachel O.:
Before she began working at Burroughs, she was going to school. She took mostly biochemistry, but then she became interested in reading.
The article on Miss Gilman, an evident polymath who teaches fifth-grade math and language arts in addition to kindergarten art, cruises along in prosaic style--her previous jobs, her hobbies, what she likes about Burroughs--before concluding, abruptly:
Even though her parents are divorced she feels that her family is very close.
The End. I have a feeling that this detail made an impression on either Isabel B. or Hannah O., the co-authors.
Update: Oh, I was wrong about the teacher profiles not being available on the Web! Check them out here.
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