I arrived in Washington DC in the middle of a heatwave.  Temperatures in the high 30s with a relatively humidity feel of the mid-40s.  I’ve spent a few summers in the near tropical heat of the US capital but this was by far the hottest!  I was, therefore, thankful to be able to escape into the cool (some might say, overly-cooled) environs of the Library of Congress.

I am extremely grateful to the APG for the 2025 Rosamund Davies Research Travel Fellowship.  It allowed me to spend three weeks researching among the collections of the Law and Newspaper Libraries of the Library of Congress.  My research focus is the US Supreme Court, an institution which, as I arrived, handed down its ruling in Trump v. CASA which prevents lower courts from imposing nationwide injunctions on government policies, a practice which dogged Presidents Obama and Biden as much as the current White House incumbent.  It was yet another reminder that the focus of my work keeps adding to my body of research materials.

My current project asks whether the current moment for the Court is different to those of the past.  Caught in a web of criticism for being too conservative, too political, too activist, I heard echoes of arguments of the past when the Justices and the institution for which they worked were criticised in much the same terms.  The questions I’m asking are what is similar, what is different, and is the current moment more dangerous for the Court’s institutional legitimacy?

 

I didn’t find an answer in my time at the Library of Congress but I did find the materials with which to start.  A combination of an unparalleled book collection, access to historical congressional debates and committee hearings, and their vast newspaper archive allowed me to start building a picture of what took place at moments of political volatility in the American past, and to start comparing it to recent debates.  My research and writing are ongoing but the material from this trip was invaluable for the project and for giving me the time and space to really start to think deeply about my core questions.

Dr Emma Long

University of East Anglia

Emma.Long@uea.ac.uk