everyone who knows some being oliver wendell holm jr. iliar with the famous passage from his memorial day day address in keene, new hampshire, Ñ at great good fortune, said holmes on thatr'veñ occasin our youth our hearts were touched with fire. it was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing. we have seen with our own eyes the snowy heights of honor. and it is for us to bear the report to those who come after us. the fire that touched holmes' heart was, of course, his th decades before he delivered the speech. at the age as of 20 in 1861, holmes had been commissioned a first lieutenant in the 20th massachusetts volunteer infantry. he rose to captain in this regime regiment, one of the best in the army of the potomac, and one that suffered the fourth highest number of combat deaths in theó entire army.'bf'y hoeps twice ca holmes twice came close to being numbered by those dead. in october, 1861, at antietum in september, 1862.q[c9ñ his third wound, a piece of shr>bur in his heel in may, 1863, appeare

. >>> oliver wendell holmes jr. served in the union army from 1861 to 1864, and he was wounded three times in battle. next a panel of scholars looks at the impact of the civil war on the life of the future supreme court justice, including how his time as a soldier shaped his law career. the supreme court historical society hosted this hour-long discussion. >> good evening, everyone, and welcome to the supreme court. it's great to see so many people here for the supreme court historical society's second lecture of the 2014 leon silverman lecture series. the society was formed in 1974 by chief justice warren berger with the notion of promoting public understanding of the history of the court. and it does that in many ways, through lectures like these, 1yñ through the publication three times a year of the journal of supreme court history, and through the acquisition of portraits of the justices for display in the supreme court building. i'd also like to especially thank the society for its efforts to assist my predeces

everyone who knows something about oliver wendell holmes jr. is familiar with the famous passage from his memorial day address in keane, new hampshire, in 1884. "through our great good fortune," said holmes on that occasion, "in our youth, our hearts were touched with fire. it was given us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing. we have seen with our own eyes beyond and above the fields the snowy heights of honor, and it is for us to bear the report to those who come after us." is fire that touched holmes' heart was, of course, his service in the civil war two decades before he delivered this speech. at the age of 20, in 1861, holmes had been commissioned first lieutenant in the 20th massachusetts volunteer infantry. he rose to captain in this regiment, one of the best in the army of the potomac, and one that suffered the fourth highest number of combat deaths in the entire army. holmes twice came close to being numbered among those dead. from serious wounds he received at the battle of balls bluff in october of 1861

everyone who knows something about oliver wendell holmes jr. is familiar with the famous passage from his memorial day address in keane, new hampshire, in 1884. "through our great good fortune," said holmes on that occasion, "in our youth, our hearts were touched with fire. it was given us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing. we have seen with our own eyes beyond and above the fields the snowy heights of honor, and it is for us to bear the report to those who come after us." is fire that touched holmes' heart was, of course, his service in the civil war two decades before he delivered this speech. at the age of 20, in 1861, holmes had been commissioned first lieutenant in the 20th massachusetts volunteer infantry. he rose to captain in this regiment, one of the best in the army of the potomac, and one that suffered the fourth highest number of combat deaths in the entire army. holmes twice came close to being numbered among those dead. from serious wounds he received at the battle of balls bluff in october of 1861

his case that i will be teaching tomorrow, he outperformed oliver wendell holmes. he is just smarter than they are in terms of the way in which he thinks. he only served for 10 years, but he had a very clear conception of the role of government which was born of a deep experience as a state law judge with an uncommon theoretical head. he was not a reactionary. he upheld the constitutionality of the workmen's compensation law. he got the right balance. he made mistakes on technical questions, but unlike brandeis, who could go off the reservation and get things completely whacked up, and holmes was good at things like antitrust law but was much too skeptical on other things, he did not suffer from that. this is not a conventional choice but this is not a conventional book. >> we need a pitney exhibit, although i need to put in a word on my hero, brandeis. when we have a hard question, we ask, wwbd, what would brandeis do? i need to ask, on the current court, very quickly, isaac you say in the book your favorite justice is justice thomas. >> i do not have favorite jud

. >>> oliver wendell holmes jr. served in the union army from 1861 to 1864, and he was wounded three times in battle. next a panel of scholars looks at the impact of the civil war on the life of the future supreme court justice, including how his time as a soldier shaped his law career. the supreme court historical society hosted this hour-long discussion.

. >>> oliver wendell holm, jr., l 61 to 1864 -- 1861 to 1864 and was wounded three times in battle.upreme court justice including how his time

he embodied what oliver wendell holmes was talk about when he said quote the life of the law has not been logic. it has been experience, unquote. he understood the hard luck cases because he had been one of them and often had defended him. marshall brought to the court his experience as wanted something dignity of second class citizenship at a time when skin color kept him out of most restaurants, hotels, and the maryland law school he wanted to attend your belated graduated top of his class at washington most black college university. he argued more cases before the supreme court and his fellow justices had, 32, of which he won 29. he was only sitting justice who defended a convict who had been sentenced to death, and he knew the meaning of rough justice, being the only justice to found a defense lawyer one of his clients had been lynched before marshals train arrived in the texas down with the suspect was to be tried. he was accused of liberal activism. if so, he leaves behind a cork guilty of conservative activism, reversing for important earlier court decisions the same week mars

leadership and what lincoln stood for that one might have thought that, i think, his father, oliver wendell holmes sr., did. and it may have something to do with the kind of skepticism with which he emerged from the war with -- about so much. of everything. but it still does puzzle me. i don't have a good answer to that question. >> well, he comes out of the war, remember, with a very strong sense of what a mess the campaigns were. and the experience at potomac would have confirmed that. for long periods of holmes' service he's wading through swamps trying to get from the virginia northern neck area to richmond in two different aborttive efforts to invade richmond. he sees people randomly shot. he gets randomly shot. he sees people run to their deaths because somebody gives him a wrong order. he never has any sense of what the general plan of the war is. so, he may have associated lincoln with the strategists of the war and thought that it was pretty much of a cockup and partly blamed lincoln for that. and then, of course, he comes out of the war and he's not an abolitionist. he has a richer attit

there's a famous quote from justice oliver wendell holmes that says even a dog knows the difference between being kicked and tripped over. lying means you're saying a conscious falsehood intentional. i can tell you he made a mistake. he acknowledged making a mistake. he was at a hearing -- i can't hear what you're saying. >> did it take a revelation of classified -- >> the question is, did he do it in public, did he correct it in public before the snowden disclosures? the answer is he didn't. maybe he got bad advice from his lawyer on this. but we talked about this immediately after the hearing, because we went to him and said, you know, that's not right. because of the 215 program. which he had not focused on. if you read his answer, you'll see he's clearly thinking of the 702 program. that's clear from what he says. we talked about, can we correct this or not. and the problem was, and i had conversations with senator wyden's staffer about this, and the problem was to correct this on the public record, where he essentially would have had to reveal the program that was still classified. it

a famous quote from justice oliver wendell holmes, a dog knows the difference being tripped and kicked over. the point that lying means you're saying a conscious falsehood intentionally. i was with the dni around i was with him both, before, during and after that, and i can tell you he made a mistake and he acknowledged making a mistake because he was at a hearing, he, i can't hear what you're saying. >> [inaudible] >> if it had taken revelation of classified information to yield -- >> he, the question did he do it in public before? did he correct it in public before snowden disclosures and he answer is he didn't. maybe he got bad advice from his lawyer on this but we talked about this immediately after the hearing because we went to him and we said, you know that is not right because it is 215 program. which he had not focused on if. you read his answer you will see he is clearly thinking of 702 program. that is clear from what he said. we talked about can we correct this or not and the problem was, and i had conversation with senator wyden's staffer was the to collect the on public r