Casey At The Bat & The Supreme Court

By Ross E. Davies

The early 20th century also saw the beginning of the long and ongoing run of Casey at Bat as an analogical-metaphorical-comical device in commentary about the work of the Supreme Court. 

One of the earliest examples is bittersweet. Federal litigation in pursuit of justice for victims of racial discrimination long predated the publication of Casey in 1888, and long postdates it as well. In its Saturday, November 10, 1917 issue, the Afro-American published a front-page story about the Court’s recent decision in Buchanan v. Warley, striking down a Louisville, Kentucky law mandating racial segregation in housing, primarily because the law violated the constitutional right to freely sell one’s property, not because it violated the right to be free from racial discrimination.