Bring in the Big Guns

A historians' amicus brief objects to the Supreme Court's abuse of history--and also helps legitimize it.

I've discussed elsewhere my skepticism about the usefulness of historians’ filing amicus curiae briefs in Supreme Court cases, and I happen to be writing this only days after the Chevron decision was released and only hours after the presidential immunity issue was decided.

Taken together, the rulings seem, at first glance anyway, to represent especiall…