Originally published September 2016. Updated August 2026.

What do Law & Order’s Sam Waterston and former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. have in common?

No, it’s not that they both spent a lot of time in the courtroom. Although they did… if you count the TV courtroom.

And while it’s true that both men were Ivy League educated, Holmes at Harvard and Waterston at Yale, that’s not the connection that binds them either. Continue reading →