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Government & Politics

Presidents, lawmakers, judges, diplomats and commanders — the people who ran the country and argued about how.

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Abraham Lincoln 1809–1865Presidents16th President who preserved the Union during the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation.Alexander Hamilton 1755–1804Political Leaders & StatecraftFounding Father who established the nation's financial system and co-authored the Federalist Papers.Barack Obama b. 1961Presidents44th President and first African American to hold the office, known for the Affordable Care Act.Hillary Clinton b. 1947Political Leaders & StatecraftFirst Lady, Senator, Secretary of State, and first woman to win a major party's presidential nomination.John Marshall 1755–1835Law & the JudiciaryChief justice who established judicial review and strengthened the Supreme Court and federal government.Michelle Obama b. 1964Political Leaders & StatecraftFirst Black First Lady who led national campaigns on childhood nutrition and military family support.Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1933–2020Law & the JudiciarySupreme Court Justice whose advocacy for gender equality made her a cultural icon.Robert F. Kennedy 1925–1968Political Leaders & StatecraftSenator and Attorney General whose 1968 presidential campaign was cut short by assassination.Earl Warren 1891–1974Law & the JudiciaryChief justice whose Court transformed civil rights, voting, representation, and criminal procedure.Kamala Harris b. 1964Political Leaders & StatecraftFirst woman, first Black American, and first Asian American to serve as vice president.Thurgood Marshall 1908–1993Law & the JudiciaryFirst African American Supreme Court Justice and lead attorney in Brown v. Board of Education.Patrick Henry 1736–1799Political Leaders & StatecraftRevolutionary orator and Virginia leader remembered for mobilizing resistance and opposing centralized federal power.Sandra Day O'Connor 1930–2023Law & the JudiciaryFirst woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, appointed by President Reagan.William Jennings Bryan 1860–1925Political Leaders & StatecraftThree-time Democratic nominee and orator who made monetary reform, popular democracy, and moral politics central national issues.Daniel Webster 1782–1852Political Leaders & StatecraftSenator and orator whose speeches on the Union and Constitution are among the greatest in history.Antonin Scalia 1936–2016Law & the JudiciaryJustice whose advocacy of originalism and textualism transformed American legal interpretation.Aaron Burr 1756–1836Political Leaders & StatecraftThird vice president who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel and was later tried for treason.Rudy Giuliani b. 1944Political Leaders & StatecraftProsecuting the Mafia Commission and leading New York City through September 11Louis Brandeis 1856–1941Law & the JudiciaryJustice and reform lawyer who advanced privacy, free speech, and progressive regulation.Clarence Thomas b. 1948Law & the JudiciaryLong-serving justice whose originalist opinions have strongly influenced modern conservative jurisprudence.Samuel Alito b. 1950Law & the JudiciarySupreme Court justice who wrote the Dobbs opinion overturning Roe v. WadeClarence Darrow 1857–1938Law & the JudiciaryDefense lawyer in the Leopold and Loeb, Scopes, and Sweet trialsJohn Roberts b. 1955Law & the JudiciaryChief justice during major decisions on health care, elections, executive power, abortion, and administrative law.Roger B. Taney 1777–1864Law & the JudiciaryChief justice whose Court shaped federalism but is principally remembered for the disastrous Dred Scott decision.Anthony Kennedy b. 1936Law & the JudiciaryThirty years as the Supreme Court's median vote, and the author of both Obergefell and Citizens United.Sonia Sotomayor b. 1954Law & the JudiciarySupreme Court Justice and former Yale Law professor whose memoir chronicles her rise from the Bronx.William Rehnquist 1924–2005Law & the JudiciaryChief justice who led the Court’s conservative shift toward federalism and limits on congressional power.Dean Acheson 1893–1971Political Leaders & StatecraftSecretary of State who helped build NATO and the postwar architecture of American foreign policy.Elena Kagan b. 1960Law & the JudiciarySupreme Court Justice and former Harvard Law dean known for her sharp legal mind and writing.Robert H. Jackson 1892–1954Law & the JudiciaryJustice, attorney general, and chief U.S. prosecutor at Nuremberg who influenced constitutional law and international criminal justice.Brett Kavanaugh b. 1965Law & the JudiciarySupreme Court justice confirmed in 2018 after contested hearings and often a pivotal vote.John Foster Dulles 1888–1959Political Leaders & StatecraftEisenhower's Secretary of State who built Cold War alliances and advocated massive nuclear retaliation.Samuel J. Tilden 1814–1886Political Leaders & StatecraftThe reform governor of New York who won the popular vote in 1876 and lost the presidencyEdwin M. Stanton 1814–1869Political Leaders & StatecraftLincoln's war secretary whose refusal to be fired triggered the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.Benjamin Harrison 1833–1901PresidentsTwenty-third president who signed the Sherman Antitrust Act and expanded the modern navy.John Paul Stevens 1920–2019Law & the JudiciaryLong-serving justice whose opinions shaped civil liberties, administrative law, and limits on executive power.Franklin Pierce 1804–1869PresidentsFourteenth president whose support for the Kansas-Nebraska Act deepened the sectional crisis over slavery.Barbara Jordan 1936–1996Political Leaders & StatecraftTexas congresswoman whose Watergate impeachment address made her a leading constitutional voice in Congress.William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan 1883–1959Military & National SecurityFounder and director of the OSS whose wartime organization became a principal institutional predecessor of the CIA.Joseph Story 1779–1845Law & the JudiciaryEarly Supreme Court justice and legal scholar whose treatises and opinions strengthened federal judicial authority.