The late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent collar is a small part of a larger history. Unlike some other high courts, the US supreme court accepts strong dissent. Ginsburg stood in the tradition of John Marshall Harlan – the only justice with the courage, foresight, humanity and constitutional vision to object to the odious 1896 Plessy v Ferguson decision that approved racial segregation.
The road to that dissent was long. Harlan was named for a former chief justice and his father instilled a love for the union and constitution, even as the Kentucky family owned enslaved people. After the civil war, Harlan embraced the Reconstruction amendments guaranteeing civil rights and equal
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