William Hennessy, Jr., a classically trained artist who chronicled oral arguments for decades in places where cameras aren’t allowed -- at the Supreme Court and legal proceedings around the country -- died on his 67th birthday Tuesday, SCOTUSblog reports. His death was first reported on X by Scott McFarlane, a CBS News correspondent who profiled Hennessy last year. “He chronicled history unlike anyone ever,” McFarlane wrote. Hennessy, who had a degree from the Rhode Island School of Design, told McFarlane that he was still in grad school when he answered a call for a courtroom sketch artist. He said that he “jumped at it” because he needed to support his family, but he was quickly hooked on the work and its tight deadlines. Without cameras in federal courts, Hennessy’s work was how many Americans saw how historic cases unfolded behind closed courtroom doors. Outside the Supreme Court, he covered high-profile trials and legal proceedings at all levels, from the impeachment trials of President Donald Trump to Hunter Biden’s trial on federal gun charges in Delaware.
Hennessy captured historic moments and landmark cases at the Supreme Court, as summarized by SCOTUSblog, which highlights some of the work on his website including Supreme Court close-ups of Chief Justice Warren Burger, who served from 1969 until 1986, the Dec. 2000 argument in Bush v. Gore, and the 2005 investiture of the current chief justice, John Roberts. "In a sketch depicting last week’s oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti, the challenge to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, Hennessy caught the energy in the room: the justices gesticulating as Chase Strangio, the first openly transgender person to argue before the court, speaks at the lectern," SCOTUSblog noted. And though Hennessy’s work at the Supreme Court primarily focused on the central drama on the bench, SCOTUSblog wrote, "he also used his sketches to highlight important visitors in the courtroom, such as Norma Anderson – the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit seeking to disqualify then-former President Donald Trump from the Colorado ballot because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol."
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