Sunlight as a Disinfectant: Justice Louis Brandeis

Louis Brandeis

Justice Louis Brandeis served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1916 until 1939. He was America’s great lawyer before he joined the Court and, always, a great writer. In Other People’s Money – and How Banker’s Use It (1914), he observed:

Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.

Our nation suffers from a social disease which has plagued us for its entire existence: racism. Wait. What? When we elected Barack Obama we got a post-racial America. Shangri-La. Right? Uh, not so much, for Mr. Obama handed over the keys