Introduction

Artful, whimsical, and highly popular, the Supreme Court bobbleheads depict the "Supremes" in miniature bobbling form, complete with witty references to their notable opinions. Created by The Green Bag and its editor, Ross Davies, the figures have been produced since 2003. They now number two dozen current and former justices, including the first Chief Justice, John Jay, and the likenesses of Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Since their inception, the bobbleheads have grown in popularity and have become prized collectibles particularly among the bench and bar. The figures have limited production runs, and the editors of The Green Bag give their creations away, as they note on their website, in rather "arbitrary and capricious" ways.

This digital exhibit memorializes the Law Library's recent Supreme Court bobblehead exhibit, "Equal Caricature Under Law: Supreme Court Bobbleheads by The Green Bag," displayed in 2016 in the Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center. Like the physical exhibit, the digital exhibit includes additional biographical information and over thirty works selected from our rare and special collections, which illustrate the justices’ contributions to law and history.

A final feature of the digital exhibit are pop-up annotations. The Green Bag provides annotations with each bobblehead, which explain the bobbleheads' figurative references to Supreme Court opinions and biographical details. The Green Bag's annotations are marked on the image of each figure by red boxes with white stars. When you click on the boxes, the annotations will appear. In order to close the annotations, you can click on the boxes again.

The Law Library gratefully thanks the Honorable James M. Rosenbaum ('69), United States Federal District Court Judge for the District of Minnesota (ret.), for donating his complete collection of Supreme Court bobbleheads to the Law Library and to the exhibit. We are also grateful to Dean Garry Jenkins and Associate Dean Joan Howland for their support of these exhibits.