All Selling Aside With Alex Mandossian

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is among the most famous of all US Supreme Court justices. He was born to a prominent boston family, and graduated from Harvard Law School in the 1860s. He then prepared a series of lectures that were published as The Common Law in 1881. Holmes served on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts from 1882 until his appointment to the US Supreme Court in 1902. During his 30 years serving on the country’s highest court, Holmes became known for his “clear and present danger” argument for the limitation of free speech, illustrated by a reference to a person falsely shouting “fire!” in a theater. Holmes retired in 1932, just after the start of the Great Depression. He has remained among the best-known of all of those who have served on the Supreme Court. Holmes was a prolific writer, and is quoted frequently. My favorite of his quotes, though, is particularly powerful: “I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity o