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About William Domnarski

Longtime lawyer who before and during has been a literary guy, with a Ph.D. in English. Written five books on judges, lawyers, and courts, two with Oxford, one with Illinois, one with Michigan, and one with the American Bar Association. I've been interested in judicial opinions as a literary genre of its own, though my principal interest has been in the role of personality in judging and lawyering.

William Domnarski is a longtime lawyer who before and during has been a literary guy, with a Ph.D. in English. He's written five books on judges, lawyers, and courts, two with Oxford, one with Illinois, one with Michigan, and one with the American Bar Association.

William's website

NBN Episodes hosted by William:

Literary Studies November 2, 2022

Moby-Dick

A Discussion with editor Hester Blum

Herman Melville

Hosted by William Domnarski
Today I talked to Hester Blum, editor of a new edition of Moby-Dick (Oxford UP, 2022). "It will be a strange sort of a book, tho', I fear; blubber is blubber …
American Studies October 18, 2022

The Norton Anthology of American Literature

Robert Steven Levine et al.

Hosted by William Domnarski
The Tenth Edition introduces diverse, compelling, relevant texts-from Civil War songs and stories to The Turn of the Screw to The Great Gatsby to poems by Juan Felipe Herrera and …
Law October 10, 2022

Citizen Justice

The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas--Public Advocate and Conservation Champion

M. Margaret McKeown

Hosted by William Domnarski
U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas was a giant in the legal world, even if he is often remembered for his four wives, as a potential vice-presidential nominee, as …
Law September 29, 2022

The Nation That Never Was

Reconstructing America's Story

Kermit Roosevelt III

Hosted by William Domnarski
There's a common story we tell about America: that our fundamental values as a country were stated in the Declaration of Independence, fought for in the Revolution, and made law …
Law September 21, 2022

Servants of the Damned

Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice

David Enrich

Hosted by William Domnarski
In his acclaimed #1 bestseller Dark Towers, David Enrich presented the never-before-told saga of how Deutsche Bank became the global face of financial recklessness and criminality. Now Enrich turns his …
Law September 14, 2022

Democratic Justice

Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court, and the Making of the Liberal Establishment

Brad Snyder

Hosted by William Domnarski
The conventional wisdom about Felix Frankfurter--Harvard law professor and Supreme Court justice--is that he struggled to fill the seat once held by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Scholars have portrayed Frankfurter as …
Law August 10, 2022

Who Decides?

States As Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation

Jeffrey S. Sutton

Hosted by William Domnarski
Everything in law and politics, including individual rights, comes back to divisions of power and the evergreen question: Who decides? Who wins the disputes of the day often turns on …
Literature June 22, 2022

Outrageous Fortune

Gloomy Reflections on Luck and Life

William Ian Miller

Hosted by William Domnarski
In Outrageous Fortune: Gloomy Reflections on Luck and Life (Oxford UP, 2020), William Ian Miller offers his reflections on the perverse consequences, indeed often the opposite of intended effects, of …
Literary Studies June 21, 2022

The Last Word

The Hollywood Novel and the Studio System

Justin Gautreau

Hosted by William Domnarski
Justin Gautreau's book The Last Word: The Hollywood Novel and the Studio System (Oxford UP, 2020) argues that the Hollywood novel opened up space for cultural critique of the film industry …
Law June 17, 2022

The Collapse of Constitutional Remedies

Aziz Z. Huq

Hosted by William Domnarski
Just recently, the Supreme Court rejected an argument by plaintiffs that police officers should no longer be protected by the doctrine of qualified immunity when they shoot or brutalize an …
Law May 11, 2022

The Hughes Court

From Progressivism to Pluralism, 1930 to 1941

Mark V. Tushnet

Hosted by William Domnarski
Mark V. Tushnet's book The Hughes Court: From Progressivism to Pluralism, 1930 to 1941 (Cambridge UP, 2022) describes the closing of one era in constitutional jurisprudence and the opening of another …
Literary Studies April 22, 2022

The Sun Also Rises

Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism

Michael Thurston (editor)

Hosted by William Domnarski
“Finally, the first of Norton’s long-awaited treatments of Ernest Hemingway, the American who, more than anyone, changed the look and sound of modern American prose. Academic rigor and impeccable attention …
American Studies March 11, 2022

Dissent and the Supreme Court

Its Role in the Court's History and the Nation's Constitutional Dialogue

Melvin I. Urofsky

Hosted by William Domnarski
In his major work, Dissent and the Supreme Court: Its Role in the Court's History and the Nation's Constitutional Dialogue (Vintage, 2017), acclaimed historian and judicial authority Melvin Urofsky examines the great …
American Studies March 11, 2022

The Saddest Words

William Faulkner's Civil War

Michael Gorra

Hosted by William Domnarski
William Faulkner, one of America's most iconic writers, is an author who defies easy interpretation. Born in 1897 in Mississippi, Faulkner wrote such classic novels as Absolom, Absolom! and The …
Literary Studies February 22, 2022

Greek to Me

Adventures of the Comma Queen

Mary Norris

Hosted by William Domnarski
Mary Norris, The New Yorker's Comma Queen and best-selling author of Between You & Me, has had a lifelong love affair with words. In Greek to Me: Adventures of the …
Law January 26, 2022

Justice on the Brink

The Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months That Transformed the Supreme Court

Linda Greenhouse

Hosted by William Domnarski
At the end of the Supreme Court's 2019-20 term, the center was holding. The predictions that the court would move irrevocably to the far right hadn't come to pass, as …