History

Mark Summers

The Bren­nan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law was foun­ded in 1995 by former law clerks to Justice William J. Bren­nan Jr. (1906–97) as a living memorial to his ideals: a commit­ment to a fair and inclus­ive demo­cracy, support for the disad­vant­aged, and respect for indi­vidual rights and liber­ties. Above all, Bren­nan saw the value of “human dignity” as the core of the law. 

Born to Irish immig­rants, Bren­nan grew up as witness to the economic hard­ships and indig­nit­ies of those in his homet­own. “What got me inter­ested in people’s rights and liber­ties,” Bren­nan would later recall, “was the kind of neigh­bor­hood I was brought up in. I saw all kinds of suffer­ing — people had to struggle.”

Bren­nan is regarded as one of the coun­try’s most influ­en­tial justices — the “play­maker” of the Warren Court, with its break­throughs in civil rights and civil liber­ties. Appoin­ted in 1956 by Pres­id­ent Dwight D. Eisen­hower, he authored far-reach­ing opin­ions that strengthened demo­cracy, protec­ted free expres­sion, and bolstered the rights of the accused. Among the most import­ant were Baker v. Carr  (1962), which helped estab­lish the prin­ciple of “one person, one vote,” and New York Times Co. v. Sulli­van (1964), which expan­ded press freedoms.

Bren­nan argued, “We current Justices read the Consti­tu­tion in the only way that we can: as twen­ti­eth century Amer­ic­ans. We look to the history of the time of fram­ing and to the inter­ven­ing history of inter­pret­a­tion. But the ulti­mate ques­tion must be: What do the words of the text mean in our time? For the genius of the Consti­tu­tion rests not in any static mean­ing it might have had in a world that is dead and gone, but in the adapt­ab­il­ity of its great prin­ciples to cope with current prob­lems and current needs.”

"For the genius of the Consti­tu­tion rests not in any static mean­ing it might have had in a world that is dead and gone, but in the adapt­ab­il­ity of its great prin­ciples to cope with current prob­lems and current needs.” — Justice William J. Bren­nan Jr.

In the quarter century since its launch, the center has grown from a small star­tup to one of the nation’s lead­ing legal and policy insti­tu­tions. It has a staff of 130 attor­neys, schol­ars, journ­al­ists, and others, and an annual budget of $27 million, with offices in New York City and Wash­ing­ton, D.C. In 2006, it embarked on an expan­ded strategy to augment its litig­a­tion strength with a focus on research, public policy, and commu­nic­a­tions — vital strategies to win legal and policy change. 

Today it has honed a distinct model, combin­ing the elements of a think tank, a legal advocacy group, and a commu­nic­a­tions hub. The policy reforms it developed have helped form a new agenda for reform in states and nation­ally.