Afterword and Response: What Digging Does and Does Not Do

I wish that I could tell you that I had discovered incontrovertible evidence that Pearl Morris had moved to Alaska and undertaken to become a salmon fisherwoman. But I tried and I was unable to. So I am going to have to do something else. I suspect that I was asked to comment on Professor Welke's paper not because I am an historian, because I am not, and not because I have any particular insight to offer on either the Morris case or Plessy, because I do not.

But rather because I have long been of the view that something akin to what we are here calling "legal archaeology" is a useful tool in understanding cases. For some years, I have required my first year torts students to engage in what we might call a "dig." So I will not comment on the details of Professor Welke's paper on which I am fully prepared to take her word. Rather I will use it as an example in making some more general points.