Pratt (law, U. of Notre Dame) argues that the years that White served as Chief Justice marked a period in which the court moved from traditional textual interpretations towards an acceptance of the assertion of future Justice Holmes that words are nothing more than "the skin of a living thought". Examining the court's majority decisions and minority dissents chronologically, Pratt explores the ways that economic, international, and other changes in American society forced the court to interpret the Constitution in circumstances vastly changed from the time of its framing.