Download or read book The Supreme Court and Constitutional Theory 1953 1993 written by Ronald Kahn and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining theoretical sophistication with a fundamental comprehension of the political institutions of the USA, this study aims to demystify the workings of the United States Supreme Court and its place in democracy.
Download or read book The Supreme Court and American Political Development written by Ronald Kahn and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2006-05-15 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative volume explores the evolution of constitutional doctrine as elaborated by the Supreme Court. Moving beyond the traditional "law versus politics" perspective, the authors draw extensively on recent studies in American Political Development (APD) to present a much more complex and sophisticated view of the Court as both a legal and political entity. The contributors--including Pam Brandwein, Howard Gillman, Mark Graber, Ronald Kahn, Tom Keck, Ken Kersch, Wayne Moore, Carol Nackenoff, Julie Novkov, and Mark Tushnet--share an appreciation that the process of constitutional development involves a complex interplay between factors internal and external to the Court. They underscore the developmental nature of the Court, revealing how its decision-making and legal authority evolve in response to a variety of influences: not only laws and legal precedents, but also social and political movements, election returns and regime changes, advocacy group litigation, and the interpretive community of scholars, journalists, and lawyers. Initial chapters reexamine standard approaches to the question of causation in judicial decision-making and the relationship between the Court and the ambient political order. Next, a selection of historical case studies exemplifies how the Court constructs its own authority as it defines individual rights and the powers of government. They show how interpretations of the Reconstruction amendments inform our understanding of racial discrimination, explain the undermining of affirmative action after Bakke, and consider why Roe v. Wade has yet to be overturned. They also tell how the Court has collaborated with political coalitions to produce the New Deal, Great Society, and Reagan Revolution, and why Native Americans have different citizenship rights than other Americans. These contributions encourage further debate about the nature and processes of constitutional change and invite APD scholars to think about law and the Court in more sophisticated ways.
Download or read book Constitutional Interpretation written by Keith E. Whittington and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With its detailed and wide-ranging explorations in history, philosophy, and law, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in how the Constitution ought to be interpreted and what it means to live under a constitutional government."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book The Warren Court and the Pursuit of Justice written by Morton J. Horwitz and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1999-04-30 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren, from 1953 to 1969, discussing the impact of the liberal court's civil rights and civil liberties decisions on American constitutional law.
Download or read book The Supreme Court in American Politics written by Howard Gillman and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades political scientists studying the Court have adopted behavioral approaches and focused on the relatively narrow question of how the justices' policy preferences influence their voting behavior. This emphasis has illuminated important aspects of Supreme Court politics, but it has also left unaddressed many other important questions about this unique and fascinating institution. Drawing on "the new institutionalism" in the social sciences, the distinguished contributors to this volume attempt to fill this gap by exploring a variety of topics, including the Court's institutional development and its relationship to broader political contexts such as party regimes, electoral systems, social movements, social change, legal precedents, political identities, and historically evolving economic structures. The book's initial chapters examine the nature of the Court's distinctive norms as well as the development of its institutional powers and practice. A second section relates the development of Supreme Court politics to the historical development of other political institutions and social movements. Concluding chapters explore how its decision making in particular areas of law or periods of time is influenced by—and influences—its socio-political milieu. These contributions offer provocative insights regarding the Court's role in maintaining or disrupting political and economic structures, as well as social structures and identities tied to ideology, class, race, gender, and sexual orientation. The Supreme Court in American Politics shows how we can develop an enriched understanding of this institution, and open up exciting new areas of research by placing it in the broader context of politics in the United States.
Download or read book The Role Of The Supreme Court In American Politics written by Richard Pacelle and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-05 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Supreme Court's effectively decided the presidential election of 2000, it decision illustrated a classic question in American politics: what is the appropriate role for the Supreme Court? The dilemma is between judicial activism, the Court's willingness to make significant changes in public policy, and judicial restraint, the Court's willingness to confine the use and extent of its power. While the Framers of the Constitution felt that the judiciary would be the "least dangerous branch" of government, many have come to the conclusion that courts govern America, a notion at odds with democratic government.Richard Pacelle traces the historical ebb and flow of the Court's role in the critical issues of American politics: slavery, free speech, religion, abortion, and affirmative action. Pacelle examines the arguments for judicial restraint, including that unelected judges making policy runs against democratic principles, and the arguments for judicial activism, including the important role the court has played as a protector of minority rights. Pacelle suggests that there needs to be a balance between judicial activism and restraint in light of the constraints on the institution and its power. Stimulating and sure to generate discussion, The Supreme Court in American Politics is a concise supplemental text for American Government and Judicial Politics course.
Download or read book In Defense of a Political Court written by Terri Jennings Peretti and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2001-10-29 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can the Supreme Court be free of politics? Do we want it to be? Normative constitutional theory has long concerned itself with the legitimate scope and limits of judicial review. Too often, theorists seek to resolve that issue by eliminating politics from constitutional decisionmaking. In contrast, Terri Peretti argues for an openly political role for the Supreme Court. Peretti asserts that politically motivated constitutional decisionmaking is not only inevitable, it is legitimate and desirable as well. When Supreme Court justices decide in accordance with their ideological values, or consider the likely political reaction to the Court's decisions, a number of benefits result. The Court's performance of political representation and consensus-building functions is enhanced, and the effectiveness of political checks on the Court is increased. Thus, political motive in constitutional decision making does not lead to judicial tyranny, as many claim, but goes far to prevent it. Using pluralist theory, Peretti further argues that a political Court possesses instrumental value in American democracy. As one of many diverse and redundant political institutions, the Court enhances both system stability and the quality of policymaking, particularly regarding the breadth of interests represented.
Download or read book May It Please the Court written by Brian L. Porto and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2017-07-28 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This practical, comprehensive, and engaging introduction to the American judicial system is designed primarily for undergraduate students in criminal justice, liberal arts, political science, and beginning law. It differs from other texts not only by delivering an insider’s view of the courts, but also by demonstrating how the judicial process operates at the intersection of law and politics. Unlike the many dull and inaccessible texts in this field, May It Please The Court conveys the human drama of civil and criminal litigation. With an updated epilogue, case studies, and discussion questions, this third edition is a robust resource for criminal justice students.
Download or read book SCOTUS 2019 written by David Klein and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-10-25 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each year, the Supreme Court of the United States announces new rulings with deep consequences for our lives. This second volume in Palgrave’s SCOTUS series explains and contextualizes the landmark cases of the US Supreme Court in the term ending 2019. With a close look at cases involving key issues and debates in American politics and society, SCOTUS 2019 tackles the Court's rulings on the census citizenship question, partisan gerrymandering, religious monuments, the death penalty, race in jury selection, double jeopardy, jury trials for reimprisonment during supervised release, Fourth Amendment protection for blood alcohol tests, deference to federal agencies, excessive fines under the Eighth Amendment and more. Written by notable scholars in political science and law, the chapters in SCOTUS 2019 present the details of each ruling, its meaning for constitutional debate, and its impact on public policy or partisan politics. Finally, SCOTUS 2019 offers an analysis of the controversial Justice Brett Kavanaugh's first term in office, as well as a big-picture look at the implications of the Court's decisions for the direction of this new Roberts Court.
Download or read book Crafting Law on the Supreme Court written by Forrest Maltzman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-07-03 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Supreme Court decisions stem largely from the political nature of the opinion writing process.
Download or read book The Encyclopedia of American Law written by David A. Schultz and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There's an old saying: Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it. Yet for most people
Download or read book The Supreme Court in a Separation of Powers System written by Richard Pacelle and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-01-09 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Supreme Court is not a unitary actor and it does not function in a vacuum. It is part of an integrated political system in which its decisions and doctrine must be viewed in a broader context. In some areas, the Court is the lead policy maker. In other areas, the Court fills in the gaps of policy created in the legislative and executive branches. In either instance, the Supreme Court’s work is influenced by and in turn influences all three branches of the federal government as well as the interests and opinions of the American people. Pacelle analyzes the Court’s interaction in the separation of powers system, detailing its relationship to the presidency, Congress, the bureaucracy, public opinion, interest groups, and the vast system of lower courts. The niche the Court occupies and the role it plays in American government reflect aspects of both the legal and political models. The Court has legal duties and obligations as well as some freedom to exercise its collective political will. Too often those studying the Court have examined it in isolation, but this book urges scholars and students alike to think more broadly and situate the highest court as the "balance wheel" in the American system.
Download or read book The Strange Career of Legal Liberalism written by Laura Kalman and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1998-08-11 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legal scholarship is in a state of crisis, Laura Kalman argues in this history of the most prestigious field in law studies: constitutional theory. Since the time of the New Deal, says Kalman, most law scholars have identified themselves as liberals who believe in the power of the Supreme Court to effect progressive social change. In recent years, however, new political and interdisciplinary perspectives have undermined the tenets of legal liberalism, and liberal law professors have enlisted other disciplines in the attempt to legitimize their beliefs. Such prominent legal thinkers as Cass Sunstein, Bruce Ackerman, and Frank Michelman have incorporated the work of historians into their legal theories and arguments, turning to eighteenth-century republicanism--which stressed communal values and an active citizenry--to justify their goals. Kalman, a historian and a lawyer, suggests that reliance on history in legal thinking makes sense at a time when the Supreme Court repeatedly declares that it will protect only those liberties rooted in history and tradition. There are pitfalls in interdisciplinary argumentation, she cautions, for historians' reactions to this use of their work have been unenthusiastic and even hostile. Yet lawyers, law professors, and historians have cooperated in some recent Supreme Court cases, and Kalman concludes with a practical examination of the ways they can work together more effectively as social activists.
Download or read book Modern America and the Legacy of the Founding written by Ronald J. Pestritto and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2007 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exciting adventure romance is full of the exotically colorful life of rural India in the nineteenth century with a boy-hero who is handsome, intelligent, self-reliant, and streetwise.
Download or read book Originalism in American Law and Politics written by Johnathan O'Neill and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2005-07-12 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains how the debate over originalism emerged from the interaction of constitutional theory, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and American political development. Refuting the contention that originalism is a recent concoction of political conservatives like Robert Bork, Johnathan O'Neill asserts that recent appeals to the origin of the Constitution in Supreme Court decisions and commentary, especially by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, continue an established pattern in American history. Originalism in American Law and Politics is distinguished by its historical approach to the topic. Drawing on constitutional commentary and treatises, Supreme Court and lower federal court opinions, congressional hearings, and scholarly monographs, O'Neill's work will be valuable to historians, academic lawyers, and political scientists.
Download or read book Packing the Court written by James Macgregor Burns and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-06-25 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life Vol 1 written by James Hitchcock and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-10 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: School vouchers. The Pledge of Allegiance. The ban on government grants for theology students. The abundance of church and state issues brought before the Supreme Court in recent years underscores an incontrovertible truth in the American legal system: the relationship between the state and religion in this country is still fluid and changing. This, the first of two volumes by historian and legal scholar James Hitchcock, provides the first comprehensive exploration of the Supreme Court's approach to religion, offering a close look at every case, including some that scholars have ignored. Hitchcock traces the history of the way the Court has rendered important decisions involving religious liberty. Prior to World War II it issued relatively few decisions interpreting the Religious Clauses of the Constitution. Nonetheless, it addressed some very important ideas, including the 1819 Dartmouth College case, which protected private religious education from state control, and the Mormon polygamy cases, which established the principle that religious liberty was restricted by the perceived good of society. It was not until the 1940s that a revolutionary change occurred in the way the Supreme Court viewed religion. During that era, the Court steadily expanded the scope of religious liberty to include many things that were probably not intended by the framers of the Constitution, and it narrowed the permissible scope of religion in public life, barring most kinds of public aid to religious schools and forbidding almost all forms of religious expression in the public schools. This book, along with its companion volume, From "Higher Law" to "Sectarian Scruples," offers a fresh analysis of the Court's most important decisions in constitutional doctrine. Sweeping in range, it paints a detailed picture of the changing relationship between religion and the state in American history.
