Ishitani Receives SCHS Early Career Research Grant

[We have the following announcement.  DRE]

The Supreme Court Historical Society is proud to announce that Michael "Henry" Ishitani is the inaugural recipient of the Henry J. Abraham Early Career Research Grant for research on the history of the United States Supreme Court.  "Supporting emerging scholars in legal history is an important aspect of our mission," said James C. Duff, the Society's Executive Director.

Ishitani, a student in the Yale Law School & History Ph.D. Program, is researching the Chase Court's rejection of the legal mechanisms designed to exclude ex-Confederates from power, part of a larger project on "democratic disqualification" in the history of the United States.  Ishitani's initial research has found that Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase and Associate Justice Stephen J. Field played pivotal roles through their anti-disqualification decisions, including Cummings v. Missouri (1866), Ex parte Garland (1866), the Case of Davis (1867), and Griffin's Case (1869).  These rulings, Ishitani argues, planted the seeds for the restoration of white supremacist power throughout the South, well before the Court's opinion in the Slaughterhouse Cases narrowed the scope of the Privileges and Immunities Clause.

"I am thrilled to have received the Abraham Early Career Research Grant," said Ishitani.  "It feels like such a great vote of career confidence from a journal whose articles I have long relied upon and enjoyed."

The Henry J. Abraham Early Career Research Grant is named for the distinguished scholar whose numerous works on constitutional law and the judicial process have had an enduring impact on the field of Supreme Court history.  Awarded on a competitive basis in June of each year, the $1,000 grant supports the research of those who are pursuing academic careers in legal history, including graduate students, law students, and those who are no more than five years from completion of either the Ph.D. or J.D.  

The award is given on the basis of the applicant's potential for producing publishable work in the field of Supreme Court history, and the grant recipient will be expected to produce an article for submission to the Journal of Supreme Court History.