Americans often fondly remember the loners， the dissenters， those who swam against the current and suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in their own time， only to achieve glory well after they have returned to dust。 John Marshall Harlan， a Justice of the Supreme Court in the last quarter of the 19th and first quarter of the 20th Century， deserves a hallowed place in the hall of great dissenters， as Peter Canellos relates in "The Great Dissenter。"Harlan's name has largely been los Americans often fondly remember the loners， the dissenters， those who swam against the current and suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in their own time， only to achieve glory well after they have returned to dust。 John Marshall Harlan， a Justice of the Supreme Court in the last quarter of the 19th and first quarter of the 20th Century， deserves a hallowed place in the hall of great dissenters， as Peter Canellos relates in "The Great Dissenter。"Harlan's name has largely been lost to history， and what a shame that is！ Beginning with his dissent in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883， Harlan staked out a lone position in arguing that the 13th， 14th and 15th Amendments， as well as legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1875， were not mere puffery， but rather ironclad protections afforded to African Americans recently escaped from bondage and still suffering discrimination and degradation throughout the South and North。 The dissents poured forth in later years， from standing against the "separate but equal" ruling in Plessy v。 Ferguson， to upholding the federal government's power to tax income in Pollock， to standing against an activist judiciary that struck down worker-friendly legislation in the so-called Lochner era， to proffering a robust American republican spirit that knew no colonialist distinctions。 Harlan was very often the lone voice in the woods， setting forth an eloquent defense of American exceptionalism that takes Jefferson's "all men are created equal" and expands to all Americans， no matter what color， creed or religion。Canellos' book is not a traditional biography; rather， it's a dual look into the lives of John Marshall Harlan and his half-brother， Robert Harlan， an African-American who managed， despite all the handicaps of being black in American society in the 1800s， to find success and fame in pursuits as widely varied as horse racing， grocery retailing， and politics。 Canellos delves deep into the lives of both Harlans， tracking John's rise in Kentucky politics and an eventual seat on the Supreme Court as well as Robert's transatlantic doings in horse racing and Republican politics。 Later on， Canellos paints striking vignettes of each major case that Harlan presided over， including a fascinating look at the Schipp case， the rare Supreme Court case where the highest court in the land sat as a jury and found a sheriff in Tennessee guilty of allowing a local white mob to lynch a African American wrongly accused of raping a white woman。 The narrative is so varied and kaleidoscopic that it loses momentum in certain spots; however， the varied storytelling also serves to refresh and vivify the life of Harlan， the cases he dissented in， and the afterlife of those dissents。In the 21st Century， Harlan has attained mythic status among current and contemporary justices。 Justices as varied as Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor have favorably cited Harlan and his dissents， finding him to be a lodestar of American jurisprudence rather than a distant， dimly lit star in the background。 In his Plessy dissent， Harlan famously wrote that "the humblest is the peer of the most powerful。" Washington， Adams， Jefferson and Madison did not bring forth that populist ideology， but they did plant the seeds reaped by Harlan and future generations that sought to open the pursuit of happiness to every single American。Let us hope fervently that Canellos' book resurrects the reputation of Harlan beyond law professors and lawyers， as well as justices more in the mold of his robust， common-sense-filled， and focus on how the law is personal experience， not merely cold， dry logic。 。。。more