Who has been the BEST Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court?

[John Taylor]

Who has been the BEST Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court?

[Galileo Galilei]

Who has been the BEST Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court?

You should set up a poll. The best one right now is Clarence Thomas. Historically, I'd go with Joseph Story, the most learned man ever to sit on the bench.

[BoutTreeFiddy]

Definitely Clarence Thomas if you are talking about right now. I love how leftists call him "Uncle Clarence Thomas".

[acptulsa]

The best in my lifetime (and in my opinion) was Sandra Day O'Connor. That institution hasn't been worth $#!+ since she left.

She had a wonderful way of saboutaging both the 'left's' and the 'right's' most horrible agendas.

[paulpwns]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_(Supreme_Court)

[John Taylor]

The best in my lifetime (and in my opinion) was Sandra Day O'Connor. That institution hasn't been worth $#!+ since she left.

She had a wonderful way of saboutaging both the 'left's' and the 'right's' most horrible agendas.

Should have put her in there, but her inconsistency through her tenure made me initially exclude her.

[Aratus]

story and/or marshall

[John Taylor]

story and/or marshall

The BEST???? Surely you are joking!!!

Marshall enabled the massive expansion of government over the past century.

[low preference guy]

The best in my lifetime (and in my opinion) was Sandra Day O'Connor. That institution hasn't been worth $#!+ since she left.

She had a wonderful way of saboutaging both the 'left's' and the 'right's' most horrible agendas.

She was good. She voted the right way in the very important cases of Kelo v. New London and Gonzales v. Raich. I still like Thomas better, however.

[Aratus]

dude... the court began brilliantly and then went blackstone's law tacitly by tradition.
mr. marshall may have had mr. story WRITE out to an 80 percentile the better rulings.
if poor taney was quite safe with 90% of his rulings, i have to say that the dred scott
case is so explosively volatile it triggered the zeitgeist and the aether to the degree
where we went to war for our best and worst of reasons. it tore us apart and then
the next 150 years were spent trying to heal us as a society after john marshall had
given us a format for our groundrules. the other possible candidate for the best justice
perhaps has to be the guy with the shortest stay on the court who is now obscure...

[acptulsa]

Should have put her in there, but her inconsistency through her tenure made me initially exclude her.

Exactly why I like her. She voted the cases and with an eye toward precedent without voting (as all her colleagues did) in a knee-jerk manner. She made all the difference in the world, and thank God we had her on there as long as we did.