Nancy caught, for her support of our endeavor here today. Today, we will address a timely topic the participation of historians in courtroom proceedings. Theres no systematic study, but the evidence we have indicates of, for instance, scholarly amicus briefs, where scholars file amicus briefs in court proceedings, has been increasing. Theres a long history of scholarly input into Appellate Court cases stretching back at least to the famous brandeis inef in a Supreme Court case 1908, but for our purposes, our pedigree as historians might be traced back to the brown versus board of education litigation in which the distinguished cptorians helped the in aa casee naacp make the against School Segregation. More recently, 400 historians signed an amicus brief in the case of webster versus reproductive services, the abortion rights case from 1989, tell youanelists will about things that are both older and more recent. In addition, historians testifying at trial has a quite long pedigree. As j
The organization of american historians hosted this 90minute event at their annual meeting in new orleans. Ok. Ok, so, i think we are ready to get started. Sorry for the delay, but welcome to the first Plenary Session of the 2017 annual meeting of the organization of american historians. Our session is called historians in court. It examines the complex roles of historians applying their scholarly skills to courtroom litigation. Thanks, first, to the o. A. H. For organizing this session and, in particular, to the president , nancy cott, for her support of our endeavor here today. Today, we will address a timely topic the participation of historians in courtroom proceedings. Theres no systematic study, but the evidence we have indicates that the use of, for instance, scholarly amicus briefs, where scholars file amicus briefs in court proceedings, has been increasing. Theres a long history of scholarly input into Appellate Court cases stretching back at least to the famous brandeis brief