IN MEMORIAM
on Dec 11, 2024
at 5:16 pm
Michael Dreeben argues for america in final time period’s historic presidential immunity case. (William Hennessy)
William Hennessy, Jr., a classically educated artist and SCOTUSblog contributor who chronicled oral arguments on the Supreme Courtroom and authorized proceedings across the nation for many years, died on Tuesday. Scott McFarlane, a CBS Information correspondent who profiled Hennessy final 12 months, reported on X on an announcement made by Hennessy’s household. Hennessy was 67 on Tuesday.
Solicitor Basic Elizabeth Prelogar defending the Biden administration’s opposition to an Idaho abortion restriction in April. (William Hennessy)
Hennessy, who had a level from the Rhode Island Faculty of Design, advised McFarlane that he was nonetheless in class when he answered a name for a courtroom sketch artist. He mentioned that he “jumped at it” as a result of he wanted to assist his household, however he was shortly hooked on the work and its tight deadlines.
Over a long time spent as a sketch artist, Hennessy captured historic moments and landmark circumstances on the Supreme Courtroom, the place pictures and video cameras are usually not allowed. A compilation of his sketches on his web site contains close-ups of Chief Justice Warren Burger, who served from 1969 till 1986, the Dec. 2000 argument in Bush v. Gore, and the 2005 investiture of the present chief justice, John Roberts.
In a sketch depicting final week’s oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti, the problem to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming take care of transgender minors, Hennessy caught the power within the room: the justices gesticulating as Chase Strangio, the primary brazenly transgender individual to argue earlier than the court docket, speaks on the lectern.
The justices debate with Chase Strangio. (William Hennessy)
Whereas Hennessy’s work on the Supreme Courtroom primarily centered on the central drama on the bench, his additionally used his sketches to focus on essential guests within the courtroom, resembling Norma Anderson – the lead plaintiff within the lawsuit looking for to disqualify then-former President Donald Trump from the Colorado poll due to his function within the Jan. 6, 2021, assaults on the U.S. Capitol.
Norma Anderson, one of many Colorado voters who sued Donald Trump in 2023, within the courtroom. (William Hennessy)
With out cameras in federal courts, Hennessy’s work was what number of Individuals noticed how historic circumstances unfolded behind closed courtroom doorways. He typically ventured exterior the Supreme Courtroom, overlaying high-profile trials and authorized proceedings in any respect ranges – from the impeachment trials of President Donald Trump to Hunter Biden’s trial on federal gun expenses in Delaware.
Not everybody was a fan of Hennessy’s sketches of then-former President Donald Trump’s arraignment in Florida on expenses that he had illegally retained labeled paperwork. Some critics contended that Hennessy’s sketches have been too flattering, however Hennessy countered that he didn’t “editorialize. I simply draw what I see.”
