When Richard Gergel was elevated to the federal judiciary by President Barack Obama in 2010, he found himself assigned to the Charleston, S.C., courtroom of an illustrious predecessor, J. Waties Waring, who had changed the course of American constitutional law. Few — including Gergel — knew much about him. The paradox was not lost on Gergel, a lifelong South Carolinian well-versed in local history. records and the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, he was on a crusade. (Gergel would not comment on the Roof trial.)

Source: New York Times January 19, 2019 10:52 UTC