Amazon.com
The savvy, chatty author of The Courage of Their Convictions brings us a scholarly reckoning of the 200-plus years of decisions made by the highest court in the land. Not surprisingly (and justifiably, given his erudite arguments), Peter H. Irons represents the court's work as a never-ending appeal of the powerless to the powerful: of the just over 100 supreme justices who have sat on the court, all but two have been white, all but two have been men, and all but seven have been Christian, whereas the supplicants to our nation's highest bar are typically racial minorities, women, and deviants in some way from the religious and social mainstream.
Taking a representative (if not comprehensive) accounting of the Supreme Court's most significant decisions, Irons puts cultural and political context--and a human face--to the parties involved, painting an absorbing and involving picture of landmark cases that readers are likely to recall but not fully understand. Whether he's explicating the tortuous history of freedom-seeking slave Dred Scott or explaining the "a Jap's a Jap" reasoning behind the legal exculpation of World War II internment camps, Irons reminds us of the court's spotted history while still conveying the deep affection he has for it. (Includes a thoughtful appendix with the complete text of the Constitution and suggestions for further reading.) --Paul Hughes
Book Description
Recent changes in the Supreme Court have placed the venerable institution at the forefront of current affairs, making this comprehensive and engaging work as timely as ever. In the tradition of Howard Zinn's classic A People's History of the United States, Peter Irons chronicles the decisions that have influenced virtually every aspect of our society, from the debates over judicial power to controversial rulings in the past regarding slavery, racial segregation, and abortion, as well as more current cases about school prayer, the Bush/Gore election results, and “enemy combatants.” A comprehensive history of the people and cases that have changed history, this is the definitive account of the nation's highest court. BACKCOVER: It is such good reading that we allow the author to lead us places in history that we might not have expected to travel. (The Boston Globe)
Customer Reviews:
A Difficult Read.......2007-04-17
I think that most of the reviewers of this book must be lawyers who are accustomed to over developed and complicated sentence structure. This is a writing technique well practiced by the legal profession and insurance policy writers.
Slogging through this book is just plain tortuous. It is very detailed and is probably a good book for pre-law or first year law students. Anyone else will find it to be painful.
The author is definitely a lefty but presents his viewpoints honestly and very well. The subject matter is fascinating but the execution is excruciating.
Interesting read.......2007-03-12
Although it drags a little at the beginning, once you get to the
history and the cases, it gets interesting. It's writtin in plain
english, except for the legal terms which are usually explained.
Someone not interested in the Supreme court probably would find
it rather boring, but then why would they be reading it? Author
writes with a pro-civil rights anti-business sentiment which
is most often justified (considering past civil rights abuses),
but it is not too overly done.
Just be ready for this slant on the cases (an opposing opinion
is not presented). All in all I enjoyed the book and think it is
well written.
Kudos.......2006-11-10
As a retired Judicial Officer I was very pleased with the presentation by Professor Irons. The book is written in a manner that regardless of your understanding of the law and Supreme Court decisions it will hold your interest. Since that reading I have bought his other books and even a course of his on DVD through The Teaching Company.
We are not only presented with crucial decisions but the reasons, good or bad, for that conclusion. This occurs with the additional reward of what social and poltical forces help shape these decisions.
The book is easily readible and extremely informative. I suggest this for those interested in quality writing, history, sociology and the law..
I wish this was required reading for all high school students.......
If you like others to think for you, this is your book!.......2006-11-04
Irons does a decent job of relating the history of the U.S. Supreme Court in an "easy to understand" manner. What this means is that he tries to paint a folksy picture of the people and issues surrounding the major court decisions of the past two centuries--he basically summarizes the major decisions, briefly explains why they're important, and then tells you his opinion and why it is correct. The book gives the reader nothing that your standard constitutional law reader does not--in fact, it gives less historical substance, compared with Kutler's book--but the appeal of this book is that it reads more like a novel and less like a history. Apparently some people like others to do their thinking for them. I do not, so I only found this book to be of minimal use. I wish that someone would have warned me about the book before I wasted my time on it, so hopefully I can prevent similar disappointment to someone else.
Good for history, bad for legal analysis.......2006-09-29
I give the author credit for explicitly revealing his biases in the book's opening pages. The author is a war protesting, left-leaning, liberal, and is a proponent of a "living Constitution" that conforms to his own ideas of a perfect society, rather than a view that treats the Constitution as a legal text. I strongly disagree with his views, but because he does not present his biases as fact, but instead openly warns the reader, I was able to continue reading.
The book's best feature is its compelling and detailed treatment of the Supreme Court's history. The author undoubtedly spent many hours parsing through obscure legal and historical materials to present the reader with a view of the factual circumstances surrounding the major legal developments of the past 200 years. As someone not very well-versed in American history, I appreciated the author's sensitive treatment of that subject.
Perhaps because of the author's biases, the first half of the book reads better than the latter half. I got the impression that I was reading a fairly objective account of the Constitution's framing and of the Civil War era. However, when discussing more recent developments, the author does not resist his urge to launch into juvenile tirades against those who have viewpoints diverse from his.
His legal analysis is generally flawed, and suffers from overt biases. He argues that it is a "dubious proposition" that the 14th amendment only applies to state action. This is strange, given that that amendment plainly states, "No *state* shall..." Scholars on both sides of the ideological debate understand that the 14th amendment was passed to bar only states from denying persons the equal protection of the law, but the author is not happy about that. Thus, he explodes into a meaningless rant about how anyone who thinks that that amendment is limited to state (as opposed to federal action as well) is a deceptive liar. As the book progresses to speak of the more controversial issues of the day, the author's biases speak louder and louder; I found myself skimming the last 150 pages, not trusting a single word that was coming out of his mouth.
That being said, I am quite happy that I read the book. It is not a great book, but it is well worth reading for its extensive historical analysis. And when the author does not launch into attacks against conservatives, he does add considerable insight to an important subject.
Three stars.
Book Description
In Crafting Law on the Supreme Court, Maltzman, Spriggs, and Wahlbeck use material gleaned from internal memos circulated among justices on the U.S. Supreme Court to systematically account for the building of majority opinions. The authors argue that at the heart of this process are justices whose decisions are constrained by the choices made by the other justices. The portrait of the Supreme Court that emerges stands in sharp contrast to the conventional portrait where justices act solely on the basis of the law or their personal policy preferences. This book provides a fascinating glimpse of how the Court crafts the law.
Book Description
The Supreme Court in Conference offers a fascinating and unprecedented look at the private debates between Justices on nearly 300 landmark cases from 1940-1985. Major decisions such as Roe v. Wade and Brown v. Board of Education are covered and the notes of Justices Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Frank Murphy, Robert Jackson, Harold Burton, Tom Clark, Earl Warren and William Brennan are opened to shed light on what goes on behind the closed doors of the secretive conference room. In this unique and revealing work on some of the most profound rulings made at a turbulent time in American history, the reader is given insight into how and why certain decisions were reached. With expert editing by Del Dickson--who provides annotations and an introduction to each case, placing them in legal and historical context--cases on issues such as free speech, the rights of the accused, religion, Presidential power, equal protection, affirmative action and the death penalty are discussed. Dickson also includes a lively and incisive history of the Supreme Court, from its beginning to the present, illuminating how the conference works, how it has evolved, its various animosities, triumphant successes and glaring failures. As the first major reference work on this subject, this easy-to-use book offers the most reliable evidence available on the internal workings of the Supreme Court. It is the ideal source for scholars, law students, historians and anyone interested in how Supreme Court decisions are truly made.
Customer Reviews:
Worthwhile for reading and reference.......2006-08-16
I only read a few chapters, on "one man one vote" decisions, and skimmed a few others, so this is not a full-scale review. Despite the editor's ingenuous but severe left-wing slant, both in his selections and in his comments, this is still a valuable book. It reveals in a way that no other work could, what really went on behind many of the key Supreme Court decisions that re-shaped American politics, government, and life. If you believe that personalities don't influence history, or that the Court is above politics, this book might correct your misapprehensions.
Don't be left behind read it now.......2001-07-28
This is the best book I have read. It is the Ball Four of the Supreme Court. It is a must for anyone going into law or who cares about how our country works. It is scary yet comforting to read what really goes on in The Supreme Court.
Book Description
This carefully considered book is a welcome addition to the debate over “judicial activism.” Constitutional scholar Kermit Roosevelt III offers an elegantly simple way to resolve the heated discord between conservatives, who argue that the Constitution is immutable, and progressives, who insist that it is a living document that must be reinterpreted in new cultural contexts so that its meaning evolves. Roosevelt uses plain language and compelling examples to explain how the Constitution can be both a constant and an organic document.
Recent years have witnessed an increasing drumbeat of complaints about judicial behavior, focusing particularly on Supreme Court decisions that critics charge are reflections of the Justices’ political preferences rather than enforcement of the Constitution. The author takes a balanced look at these controversial decisions through a compelling new lens of constitutional interpretation. He clarifies the task of the Supreme Court in constitutional cases, then sets out a model to describe how the Court creates doctrine to implement the meaning of the Constitution. Finally, Roosevelt uses this model to show which decisions can be justified as legitimate and which cannot.
Customer Reviews:
Highly Recommended.......2007-07-21
Defending the Supreme Court against baseless accusations, Roosevelt's constructive analysis of constitutional decision-making yields a refreshingly principled book that withstands heated partisanship. Judicious and applicable, the book provides criteria for a careful assessment of controversial Supreme Court decisions; and subsequently, a framework with which one can discuss pending issues, including those that are likely to arouse debates later this year. What is the conceptual structure that determines the outcome of these cases? Historically, how have evolving societal standards, an emerging national consensus, and the democratic process (in their abundant or reserved degrees) informed these decisions? Written with the objective of "helping citizens to understand and evaluate the work of the Supreme Court," Roosevelt presents a myriad of topics, many of which, according to Roosevelt, remain questions that "will ultimately be answered by the American people."
A laughably muddled apologia.......2007-07-15
This mess of a book contains every possible justification and rationalization for judges substituting their own policy preferences for the text and clear meaning of the constitution. At its bottom, it is a profoundly anti-democratic tract. Mr. Roosevelt believes that the ultimate political authority in the country should be held by a wise cadre of elites in black robes. Wouldn't do to have the unwashed getting their hands on the levers of power in an honest democracy operated by the rules actually set down by the founders in the constitution.
Primer on how lawyers twist words.......2007-04-23
The author clerked under US District Judge Stephen Williams and Supreme Court Justice David Souter and now teaches at the U. of Pennsylvania Law School. The thought process of Justice Souter clearly prevails here. If the author believed his own argument, he would differ as to whether certain cases were properly decided or not. Instead, the author seems to conclude that cases are properly decided if the outcomes accord with current politically liberal fashions.
This volume would be valuable to anyone who does not already understand how legal words and judicial concepts can be twisted to achieve whatever endpoint at which a judge wants to arrive. One suspects, though, that rather than trying to add to the public's understanding of judicial decision-making, the real intent of the author is to take another step in hopefully gaining appointment as a federal judge once a Democrat is elected President.
An Important Book on a Vital Issue.......2006-12-15
The author, an assistant professor of law at Penn, and the author of a solid novel about Washington law firm life ("In the Shadow of the Law" reviewed also on Amazon), tackles in this book one of the most difficult and important issues relating to the Supreme Court--its legitimacy to make decisions overruling the popularly-elected branches. Courts recently have been under fire by a number of groups, with much more emotion and passion than light and insight in evidence. The author wants to develop a different approach in assessing charges of alleged "judicial activism." While his approach is unique, I think only time will tell whether he has crafted a workable approach to the issue. Basically, the author argues that most Court decisions are "legitimate" because they represent "reasonable" decisions as to whether judicial deference is advisable. He draws a basic distinction between "constitutional meaning" and "constitutional doctrine" (i.e., rules the Court employs to implement constitutional meaning). He focuses upon doctrine, at once then avoiding the endless debate about "plain meaning." One important consideration in formulating doctrine is institutional competence, which is a key point in his analysis, as is the role of past history. A careful examination of the "activism" allegations is included--here the author argues that it is not meaning, but doctrine, that is the key issue. He also adds some solid perspective on the originalism debate.
Having laid out his general theory, the author next looks at a series of Court decisions, some quite controversial,which he designates as "easy cases" and "hard cases" to demonstrate the applicability of his model. This is followed by a very valuable discussion of "legitimacy," which he defines as sensible attempts to implement a reasonable understanding of constitutional meaning. This section discusses more cases. Finally, in a section called "Striking the Balance," the author sums up his approach in a sort of "whom do you trust" approach re deciding constitutional issues--courts or the other branches.
The book includes excellent notes and helpful sections on "further reading" at the end of each chapter. As with most innovative studies, there are a few problems. It is not always quite clear, without substantial review, as to what the author is suggesting in the initial section where his approach is laid out. How does one define "reasonable" and "sensible" for example? While written for the general reader, this is not light "bedtime reading." Nonetheless, Roosevelt is grappling with difficult issues and proposing his own innovative model to address a very critical issue. For those interested in this vital issue, a book well worth the challenges involved in reading it.
Hardly worth the read.......2006-12-14
This is hardly a serious analysis of the issue but smacks more of a liberal's partisan defense of the charge of judicial activism - it reads more like an oversized editorial than a scholarly work.
Amazon.com
Kermit L. Hall, Dean of the College of Humanities, Executive Dean of the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences, and Professor of History and Law at Ohio State University, is well versed in American constitutional and legal history, and has a skillful touch when it comes to editing the contributions of well over 100 legal scholars (from attorneys and state supreme court justices to professors of law, political science, constitutional history, and government), producing a reference tome that invites the attention of lay legal beagles, students of American history, and practicing members of the legal profession.
The first 348 pages are devoted to an alphabetically arranged presentation of more than 400 of the Supreme Court's most significant and consequential decisions, from Abington School District v. Schempp (1963, reaffirming that the establishment clause forbids public schools from sponsoring religious prayerful practices) to Zurcher v. "The Stanford Daily" (1978, ruling 5 to 3 that the Palo Alto police had violated neither the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press nor the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches when they obtained a warrant and inspected the offices of Stanford University's student newspaper). Each case synopsis, generally half a page to a full page in length, describes the background incident, the constitutional issues in question, a concise summary of the reasoning behind the majority and dissenting opinions, what the public reaction was, and in what ways that ruling affected future cases and laws.
In addition, there's a glossary of terms, defining general legal concepts such as bail as well as less commonly known practices such as the Bad Tendency Test, an appendix containing the Constitution of the United States, another appendix covering the nominations and succession of Supreme Court justices, and an exhaustively comprehensive topical index. It's a pleasure to see a reference work that so effectively and engagingly treats the major decisions of the Supreme Court from 1789 to present. --Stephanie Gold
Book Description
In Democracy in America, De Tocqueville observed that there is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one. Two hundred years of American history have certainly borne out the truth of this remark. Whether a controversy is political, economic, or social, whether it focuses on child labor, slavery, prayer in public schools, war powers, busing, abortion, business monopolies, or capital punishment, eventually the battle is taken to court. And the ultimate venue for these vital struggles is the Supreme Court. Indeed, the Supreme Court is a prism through which the entire life of our nation is magnified and illuminated, and through which we have defined ourselves as a people. Now, in The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, readers have a rich source of information about one of the central institutions of American life. Everything one would want to know about the Supreme Court is here, in more than a thousand alphabetically arranged entries. There are biographies of every justice who ever sat on the Supreme Court (with pictures of each) as well as entries on rejected nominees and prominent judges (such as Learned Hand), on presidents who had an important impact on--or conflict with--the Court (including Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt), and on other influential figures (from Alexander Hamilton to Cass Gilbert, the architect of the Supreme Court Building). More than four hundred entries examine every major case that the court has decided, from Marbury v. Madison (which established the Court's power to declare federal laws unconstitutional) and Scott v. Sandford (the Dred Scott Case) to Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade. In addition, there are extended essays on the major issues that have confronted the Court (from slavery to national security, capital punishment to religion, from affirmative action to the Vietnam War), entries on judicial matters and legal terms (ranging from judicial review and separation of powers to amicus brief and habeas corpus), articles on all Amendments to the Constitution, and an extensive, four-part history of the Court. And as in all Oxford Companions, the contributors combine scholarship with engaging insight, giving us a sense of the personality and the inner workings of the Court. They examine everything from the wanderings of the Supreme Court (the first session was held on the second floor of the Royal Exchange Building in New York City, and the Court at times has met in a Congressional committee room, a tavern, a rented house, and finally, in 1935, its own building), to the Jackson-Black Feud and the clouded resignation of Abe Fortas, to the Supreme Court's press room and the paintings and sculptures adorning the Supreme Court building. The decisions of the Supreme Court have touched--and will continue to influence--every corner of American society. A comprehensive, authoritative guide to the Supreme Court, this volume is an essential reference source for everyone interested in the workings of this vital institution and in the multitude of issues it has confronted over the course of its history.
Customer Reviews:
Good General Overview.......2007-03-20
As a political scientist, I approached this book with a view towards understanding the social impetus and political environment surrounding a particular court decision. This is an excellent book for such an endeavor. It is probably too superficial for a legal companion but in terms of understanding the issues involved in a case, it is pretty good. Further, the overviews also cite some of the more important precedents cited by the court in a given decison as well as those decisions or statutes overturned in a case.
As an aside, it is interesting to see how decisions are made without the full court. Time and again you see the notation "Justices blank and blank not participating".
John C. McKee
Useful reference book.......2006-07-04
The "Oxford Guide to US Supreme Court Decisions" is not much more than that. It gives an extremely expansive overview of all US Supreme Court cases that can remotely be considered important, throughout the period of its existence. Every case contains information on the reference number, the composition of the majority, concurrence and dissents, and a summary of what the case or controversy was about by a legal scholar.
The latter are sometimes a little problematic. Many cases are not given more than one or two paragraphs, and the index is incomplete. Some of the writers of the summaries also have a tendency to insinuate their own opinions on the cases into it, which goes particularly for those done by Kermit Hall himself, which are invariably positive about the most progressive justices and generally scathing about Scalia (though this is done in a 'read between the lines' manner, of course). An additional issue is that the index is incomplete, and the promised biographies of all Justices is no more than a list of their dates of nomination, appointment and death, which is rather disappointing.
Still overall, it's an essential reference book for looking up cases and the inclusion of related cases in the case summaries makes it much easier to trace precedent through the decades.
Oxford Guire to US Supreme Court Decisions.......2006-02-21
This is a handy reference to quickly correlate discussions of past decisions in the many articles on supreme court actions as well as during the confirmation process. It is a good book for every supreme court watcher to have on the shelf.
Great Introduction Book.......2006-02-12
This book is perfect if you are interested in important decisions of the Supreme court but do not want to spend hours reading arguments, decisions and dissents in a civics book or findlaw. Oxford explains what happened in the case, why it is important and what the Supreme Court's decision did for American law.
It is small, well bound, and for the price of the paperback it is a valuable ancillary text or primary text for any person who is interested in the law or the history of Supreme court decisions. It even offers a glossary for law jargon, the American constitution and the succession of the justices of the Supreme court.
A helpful, big-picture summary.......2005-12-15
As a law student, I slogged away through case books, trying to understand what a particular Supreme Court decision was about. After seeing this book, I picked it up to see if it would help put the decisions in context for me so that I could better understand the details of each case.
By far, this book helped. For these important cases, the authors give you an idea of why the case was in the Supreme Court, some of the background history, the key elements of the decision, and in some cases, the effect of the decision. Not only did I understand how the case was decided, but I understand better about how the decision came about.
For any reader trying to understand more about the decisions that have shaped us as a nation, then I would highly recommend taking a look at this book. For law students, this is a quick refresher that will definitely prove helpful.
Book Description
Despite several decades of research on Supreme Court decision-making by specialists in judicial politics, there is no good answer to a key question: if each justice’s behavior on the Court were motivated solely by some kind of “liberal” or “conservative” ideology, what patterns should be expected in the Court’s decision-making practices and in the Court’s final decisions? It is only when these patterns are identified in advance that political scientists will be able to empirically evaluate theories which assert that the justices’ behavior is motivated by the pursuit of their personal policy preferences.
This book provides the first comprehensive and integrated model of how strategically rational Supreme Court justices should be expected to behave in all five stages of the Court's decision-making process. The authors’ primary focus is on how each justice’s wish to gain as desirable a final opinion as possible will affect his or her behavior at each stage of the decision-making process.
Customer Reviews:
An insightful look into the man who transformed our nation........1999-07-05
Although few people knew his name, Supreme Court Justice William Brennan became a force of history. Applying his belief that the Constitution and Bill of Rights was written for all Americans, Brennan shaped the nation by attaining majorities is such cases as Roe v. Wade and Texas v. Johnson (flag burning). His legacy is one of justice and equality, of cooperation and liberty, of criminal rights and human rights, of compassion, moral rectitude and courage. If you do not know this man, you do not know the greatest force in constitutional law this American century has ever seen. Kim Eisler, using various sources, opened a window through which every American can see the Court, and one of its most important jurists, in langauge we can all understand. The best book on the Supreme Court (and a supreme Justice) I have ever read.
Average customer rating:
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Schoolhouse Decisions of the United States Supreme Court
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A History of the Supreme Court
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The Supreme Court
The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions
The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States
