Along the way, I share tales of famous cases and favorite drinks-from Chief Justice Taft’s prosecution of bootleggers to Chief Justice Warren’s appreciation of a well-chilled Gimlet, and from Chief Justice Marshall’s punch-quaffing to Chief Justice Rehnquist’s sobriety checkpoint ruling. Providing a cocktail-by-cocktail history of the eras of the Supreme Court and its alcohol-related decisions, I illustrate how constitutional law on regulating alcohol was intimately related with the justices’ participation in the alcohol culture of their times. Examining the social and political history of the Supreme Court by each era of its Chief Justice, the book presents the evolution of the judicial institution and the most important developments in its constitutional decision-making through the lens of the cocktail. Glass and Gavel is the story of alcohol in American life and law, and a study of how the decisions of the U.S.

Unexpectedly topical, the book unites two of my enduring interests: the Supreme Court in the process of American political development, and American mixology-or the life and times of that American invention, the cocktail.

Supreme Court and Alcohol, I discuss how the justices have participated in both the enjoyment and the restriction of beverage alcohol throughout our country’s history. In my forthcoming book, Glass and Gavel: the U.S. Long before then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh uttered these immortal words in his opening statement for his extended Senate confirmation hearings in late September, alcoholic beverages were a part of the life and work of the justices of the Supreme Court.

Glass and Gavel by Nancy L. Maveety