Tuesday, February 24, 2025

We’re headed back to SCOTUS this week to cover the oral arguments in Pung v. Isabella County.  For me, one of the best parts of any visit to the court is always the building itself.  Thomas Jefferson said of the Library of Congress that it was designed as a temple to knowledge; and honestly it feels just like that. Architect Cass Gilbert designed the Supreme Court building in a classical style, meant to suggest a temple of justice. In my estimation, mission accomplished.

Surprisingly, the Supreme Court did not have its own building until 1935. For nearly 150 years, the Justices met in borrowed rooms inside the Capitol. It took former President and then Chief Justice William Howard Taft to press for a permanent home. He wanted one that underscored the court’s institutional independence rather than its proximity to Congress.

Above the main entrance, the words “Equal Justice Under Law” were selected in 1932 to define the Court’s role within the constitutional structure. The inscription is framed by sculpted figures representing authority, counsel and research, reinforcing that judging is meant to rest on study and deliberation, not speed.

Look more closely and the building’s messaging becomes even more pointed. On the East Pediment, a tortoise faces a hare (a direct reference to Aesop’s fable). The message: justice is not engineered for haste. Tortoises also appear on the bronze lamppost bases outside on the plaza. Owls are worked into stair details and doors (wisdom). Lions appear along the roofline and in the Great Hall (strength and authority). Dolphins show up at the flagpole bases (vigilance and adaptability). The building operates as a visual reminder that patience, study, endurance and institutional stability are how the court sees its role.

Inside the courtroom, the friezes include figures from across legal history: Hammurabi, Moses, Solon, and others associated with the development of Western legal systems. It’s an explicit reminder that this court is part of a long legal lineage. Whether one views that notion as pure aspiration or as an institutional reminder, the point is made — the court views its work as part of a much longer arc, not simply the dispute of the week.

Distinct from the famous depictions of Lady Justice blindfolded (as a symbol of impartiality and objectivity), inside the courtroom at the center of the West Wall Frieze (and what the Justices see when seated on the bench) Lady Justice appears differently. Here, she appears without a blindfold, her gaze fixed steadily upon figures representing the forces of evil in the allegory of Good versus Evil (Vice, Crime, Corruption, Slander and Deception). Her hand rests on the hilt of a sheathed sword, suggesting vigilance and readiness to defend the principles of truth and virtue. Unlike the blindfolded representations of Justice found elsewhere in the building, here the message is that justice must see clearly the challenges it confronts, even as it traces its work across centuries.

These symbols emphasize patience, careful observation and measured judgment. During a visit you’ll notice the Justices approach arguments deliberately, signaling more through questions and body language than through pronouncements. Watching that process unfold in real time is part of why we choose to be there in person.

Yes, anyone can listen to oral arguments online or read the transcript later. We will too. But being in the chamber offers something different. You see which questions draw frowns, smiles or skeptical raised brows. You get a better sense of which arguments seem to shift the bench and where the energy changes. You can tell whether laughter is congenial or incredulous. You catch emphasis, tone, hesitation — the details that signal how a case is unfolding, long before the opinion is handed down.

That vantage point allows us to bring you more, to move beyond summary and more toward analysis. We’ll bring you what was said, how it landed, and what it may signal next for the issue at stake: property rights and the tax foreclosure sale process. Our job isn’t just to recount the exchange; it’s to help you understand what it could mean for your business, your work, your community. That’s why we go.

Until Next Time,

Mary Schuster
Chief Knowledge Officer
October Research, LLC