March Sketches
As the Court’s March sitting began most of the attention was on the confirmation hearings for judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Here are some sketches from the sparsely attended arguments.
February Sitting Sketches
The big news in January: The announcement that Justice Breyer will retire after the last opinion of the term is delivered. A greatly admired and deeply humble man, Justice Breyer is famous for the expansive, and sometimes weird, hypothetical questions he asks during argument. With wonderful body language and an expressive face he is one of the most fun to draw. I wish him the best, and hope he continues to ride his bike without mishaps.
I don’t know why but as retirement approaches it has become increasingly difficult to bring myself to post the sketches to this blog. Forgive me. I will attempt to wrap it up and get up to date with these next three posts.
Seems someone left a fire extinguisher by the bench on the first day of the February sitting. It was gone the next day.
January SCOTUS Sketches
The Court started the January sitting early with an emergency hearing on vaccine-or-test mandates. Unfortunately I was out sick ( not COVID ) for that argument which of course was the biggie news-wise. I did make it back to in-person arguments the following week, and here, better late than never, are the sketches:
December SCOTUS Sketches
Sketches from the Mississippi abortion argument, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., were posted earlier. Here are the rest of December’s sketches.
Sketches From The Eye Of The Storm
While hundreds of demonstrators filled the sidewalks and streets around the Supreme Court building, inside lawyers made their arguments to the justices before a sparsely populated audience. The case. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, is likely the vehicle the anti-abortion movement has been waiting for.
November’s Argument Sketches
The justices heard arguments in some notable cases this month, from abortion to gun rights in just the first week. It’s been pretty exciting. The new seating arrangement for the press puts us directly behind arguing counsel; such an improvement after years of being sidelined into a cramped alcove behind two rows of reporters. That’s Nina Totenberg in the foreground, and you can just spy Joan Biskupic on the far right in red.
As usual, I’m late in posting these. I have an aversion to looking at my drawings once they’re done, at least for awhile. It’s always such a struggle, and there’s never enough time, that it’s hard to be satisfied. If that sounds like false modesty it’s just temporary . . . The drawings aren’t bad. I’m just trying to excuse my laziness in publishing them.
About Me
Courtartist is me, Art Lien. I've been sketching the courts since 1976, mainly for NBC News, and more recently SCOTUSblog. The U.S. Supreme Court is my regular beat.
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