Abstract
This essay begins by making a few foundational observations about the importance of heroes to our legal system. It is not simply that lawyers and scholars enjoy the exercise of ranking great justices, though we do, but that the elevation of heroes serves an important pedagogical function, teaching all lawyers and the community at large about what judicial virtues to value. Thus, the legal profession, especially the legal academics who usually sponsor these exercises, should take seriously the implications of their activities. Second, this essay outlines the usual cultural conception of active, crusading, conquering heroes. It then shows how and why the legal community has canonized two leaders of the Warren Court – Chief Justice Earl Warren and Justice William Brennan – as “heroic justices” along these lines. Finally, this essay looks at an alternative conception: the “humble heroism” exhibited in history and literature by Cincinnatus, George Washington, and Frodo Baggins. It then connects this humble heroism to the judicial context by identifying it with an originalist method of interpretation driven by service to the rule of law.
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