The Supreme Court Phalanx

The Supreme Court Phalanx
Author: Ronald Dworkin
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Total Pages: 91
Release: 2008
Genre: Abortion
ISBN: 1590172930

"A New York Review Books collection"--Cover.

The Will of the People

The Will of the People
Author: Barry Friedman
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 623
Release: 2009-09-29
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1429989955

In recent years, the justices of the Supreme Court have ruled definitively on such issues as abortion, school prayer, and military tribunals in the war on terror. They decided one of American history's most contested presidential elections. Yet for all their power, the justices never face election and hold their offices for life. This combination of influence and apparent unaccountability has led many to complain that there is something illegitimate—even undemocratic—about judicial authority. In The Will of the People, Barry Friedman challenges that claim by showing that the Court has always been subject to a higher power: the American public. Judicial positions have been abolished, the justices' jurisdiction has been stripped, the Court has been packed, and unpopular decisions have been defied. For at least the past sixty years, the justices have made sure that their decisions do not stray too far from public opinion. Friedman's pathbreaking account of the relationship between popular opinion and the Supreme Court—from the Declaration of Independence to the end of the Rehnquist court in 2005—details how the American people came to accept their most controversial institution and shaped the meaning of the Constitution.

Losing Twice

Losing Twice
Author: Emily M. Calhoun
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2011-04-06
Genre: Law
ISBN: 019991043X

Constitutional 'losers' represent a thorny and longstanding problem in American constitutional law. Given our adversarial system, the way that rights cases are decided means that regardless of whether a losing side has committed any actions that cause harm to others, they typically suffer unnecessary harm as a consequence of decisions. In areas such as affirmative action and gay rights, the losers are essentially punished for losing despite neither intending nor causing injury. In Losing Twice, Emily Calhoun draws upon conflict resolution theory, political theory, and Habermasian discourse theory to argue that in such cases, the Court must work harder to avoid inflicting unnecessary harm on Constitutional losers. But for this to happen, Calhoun contends, the role of judges needs to be reconceptualized. She contends that the Court should not perceive itself simply as an adversarial forum, but also as a 'transactional' one, where losers are not simply losers but participants in a process capable of addressing and ameliorating the effects that come with loss. Filled with lucid discussions of well known cases, Losing Twice offers an intellectually powerful argument for transforming the decision-making process in Constitutional rights disputes.

Accountability in the Contemporary Constitution

Accountability in the Contemporary Constitution
Author: Nicholas Bamforth
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 427
Release: 2013-11-14
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0191648949

Accountability is regarded as a central feature of modern constitutionalism. At a general level, this prominence is perhaps unsurprising, given the long history of the idea. However, in many constitutional democracies, including the UK and the USA, it has acquired a particular resonance in contemporary circumstances with the declining power of social deference, the expanding reach of populist accountability mechanisms, and the increasing willingness of citizens to find mechanisms for challenging official decision-making. These essays, by public law scholars, seek to explore how ideas of and mechanisms associated with accountability play a part in the contemporary constitution. While the majority of contributors concentrate on the United Kingdom, others provide comparative discussion with particular reference to the United States and aspects of European Union law. The main focus of the volume is the contemporary UK constitution. Chapters are included which analyse the historical context (including the role of Dicey), common law constitutionalism, the constitutional role of Parliament, the constitutional role of the courts, judicial accountability, human rights protection under the constitution and the contribution of non-judicial accountability mechanisms. Further chapters explore the public service principle, the impact of new public management on public service delivery, and the relationship between accountability and regulation. Finally accountability is discussed in the light of constitutional reform including the challenges posed by the 'multi-layered' government at the supra national level of EU membership and sub-national national levels of devolution and local government.

Thinking about Law and Ethics

Thinking about Law and Ethics
Author: Ellsworth L. Fersch
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2007-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0595476732

This volume provides a clear and compelling introduction to the most controversial moral and legal problems in society. Focusing on ethical and legal decision making, it directs attention to the issues raised by the general public and by students of law, philosophy, justice, and social policy. Some frequently asked questions and examples address basic life and death issues: abortion and infanticide; care of children, at risk because of predatory priests or alternatives to medicine; capital punishment, in general and excluding juveniles and the mentally retarded; right to die, including physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. Other frequently asked questions and examples address administrative practices: affirmative action, especially in higher education; professional conduct of lawyers, doctors, and educators; sexual conduct, including homosexual behavior and same-sex marriage; privacy, as a personal problem and a Constitutional right. The materials examine many controversies in ethical and legal decision making: where competing moral and ethical values come from; how to balance reason and faith as significant factors; what the role of personal religious, political, and philosophical views is in deciding; which method is of use in interpreting the U.S. and State Constitutions; what factors to use in the confirmation of Justices and others; the importance of stability v. the necessity for change in addressing moral problems; whether legislatures or courts can better solve contemporary problems; the wide variety of views of ethical and legal decision making. The extensive bibliography directs students and the public interested in further material to the important world where ethics and law, morality and public policy interact. This brief and readable book is the first place to look for what most people want to know about law and ethics.

Packing the Court

Packing the Court
Author: James Macgregor Burns
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2009-06-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1101081902

From renowned political theorist James MacGregor Burns, an incisive critique of the overreaching power of an ideological Supreme Court For decades, Pulitzer Prize-winner James MacGregor Burns has been one of the great masters of the study of power and leadership in America. In Packing the Court, he turns his eye to the U.S. Supreme Court, an institution that he believes has become more powerful, and more partisan, than the founding fathers ever intended. In a compelling and provocative narrative, Burns reveals how the Supreme Court has served as a reactionary force in American politics at critical moments throughout the nation's history, and concludes with a bold proposal to rein in the court's power.

Strange Justice

Strange Justice
Author: Jane Mayer
Publisher: Graymalkin Media
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2018-05-09
Genre: Law
ISBN: 163168163X

Now a New York Times Best Seller and a National Book Award finalist. Charged with racial, sexual, and political overtones, the confirmation of Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court justice was one of the most divisive spectacles the country has ever seen. Anita Hill’s accusation of sexual harassment by Thomas, and the attacks on her that were part of his high-placed supporters’ rebuttal, both shocked the nation and split it into two camps. One believed Hill was lying, the other believed that the man who ultimately took his place on the Supreme Court had committed perjury. In this brilliant, often shocking book, Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, two of the nation’s top investigative journalists examine all aspects of this controversial case. They interview witnesses that the Judiciary Committee chose not to call, and present documents never before made public. They detail the personal and professional pasts of both Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill and lay bare a campaign of lobbying, public relations, and character assassination fueled by conservative power at its most desperate. A gripping high-stakes drama, Strange Justice is not only a definitive account of the Clarence Thomas nomination hearings, but is also a classic casebook of how the Washington game is played by those for whom winning is everything.

Taking the Stand

Taking the Stand
Author: Alan Dershowitz
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 578
Release: 2013-10-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0307719294

#1 New York Times bestselling author Alan Dershowitz recounts his extraordinary coming of age in this legal autobiography, as well as the cases that have changed American jurisprudence over the past fifty years, most of which he has personally been involved in. “Overflowing with fascinating and funny vignettes involving his cases and clients, and probing and provocative insights into contemporary legal controversies.”—The Boston Globe Alan Dershowitz, the preeminent defense lawyer in America today, has been called the “winningest appellate criminal defense lawyer in history.” A professor at Harvard Law School since the age of twenty-five, he has led or been part of the defense team for such storied clients as Bill Clinton, Julian Assange, O. J. Simpson, Claus von Bülow, Mia Farrow, Jeffrey MacDonald, Patty Hearst, Mike Tyson, and countless others. In Taking the Stand, Dershowitz describes his evolution as a lawyer—from a C-minus student in Yeshiva High School to the youngest full professor in the history of Harvard Law School. In his #1 New York Times bestselling book Chutzpah, Alan described his Jewish life. In Taking the Stand, he looks at the people and events that have helped to shape his ideas about the law. He describes his formative years as a clerk for the United States Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. In the course of his career, he confronts the challenges of First Amendment law, the ongoing tension between individual freedom and national security, the questionable science often employed to prosecute accused murderers, the evolution of civil rights—and why the abortion rights debate in society hasn’t moved forward since Roe v. Wade. Filled with unforgettable cases and inside legal “baseball,” Taking the Stand is a deeply personal account of one of the legendary legal minds of our time.

Supreme Ambition

Supreme Ambition
Author: Ruth Marcus
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Total Pages: 496
Release: 2020-11-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1982123877

The Washington Post journalist and legal expert Ruth Marcus goes behind the scenes to document the inside story of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation battle and the Republican plot to take over the Supreme Court—thirty years in the making—in this “impressively reported, highly insightful, and rollicking good read” (The New York Times Book Review). In the summer of 2018 the Kavanaugh drama unfolded so fast it seemed to come out of nowhere. With the power of the #MeToo movement behind her, a terrified but composed Christine Blasey Ford walked into a Senate hearing room to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual assault. This unleashed unprecedented fury from a Supreme Court nominee who accused Democrats of a “calculated and orchestrated political hit.” But behind this showdown was a much bigger one. The Washington Post journalist and legal expert Ruth Marcus documents the thirty-year mission by conservatives to win a majority on the Supreme Court and the lifelong ambition of Brett Kavanaugh to secure his place in that victory. The reporting in Supreme Ambition is full of revealing and weighty headlines, as Marcus answers the most pressing questions surrounding this historical moment: How did Kavanaugh get the nomination? Was Blasey Ford’s testimony credible? What does his confirmation mean for the future of the court? Were the Democrats outgunned from the start? On the way, she uncovers secret White House meetings, intense lobbying efforts, private confrontations on Capitol Hill, and lives forever upended on both coasts. This “extraordinarily detailed” (The Washington Post) page-turner traces how Brett Kavanaugh deftly maneuvered to become the nominee and how he quashed resistance from Republicans and from a president reluctant to reward a George W. Bush loyalist. It shows a Republican party that had concluded Kavanaugh was too big to fail, with senators and the FBI ignoring potentially devastating evidence against him. And it paints a picture of Democratic leaders unwilling to engage in the no-holds-barred partisan warfare that might have defeated the nominee. In the tradition of The Brethren and The Power Broker, Supreme Ambition is the definitive account of a pivotal moment in modern history, one that will shape the judicial system of America for generations to come.