Rehnquist Supreme Court

This is the first in-depth analysis of the Rehnquist Court viewed as a functional entity. Well known for his work in constitutional law, Stanley Friedelbaum analyzes leading cases and rigorously examines the Court's full opinions. He reviews the interaction between the Justices and points to the patterns of the Court as a new centralist coalition comes to control critical policymaking relating to abortion, the right to die, affirmative action, reverse discrimination, and privacy interests. A table of important cases and a bibliography enhance this short study for general readers and for students in introductory constitutional law courses and in advanced courses in judicial politics and American government.

In The Rehnquist Court and the Constitution, Tinsley Yarbrough provides a comprehensive look at today's Supreme Court Justices and their record--a study all the more valuable for the Court's mixed decisions and hard-to-categorize course. An accomplished biographer, Yarbrough offers incisive portraits of the nine who now sit on the high bench, and tellingly reviews their nomination hearings. He also explores the workings of the Court, ranging from the selection and role of the clerks to the work load (including the end-of-term "June crunch") and assignment of opinions. But the heart of the book is a systematic exploration of the Court's record in such fields as government power, economic regulation, and criminal justice. In decision after decision, the author discusses the various justices' opinions, arguments, and legal theories; he also offers his own analysis (including a sharp critique of the decision to allow the Paula Jones lawsuit to move forward). Like many writers on the Rehnquist Court, Yarbrough finds a general continuity with the past, shaded by a conservative outlook (especially in matters of criminal justice and affirmative action), but he identifies a significant departure in its rulings on economic regulation. Since 1937, he writes, the Supreme Court had generally adopted an expansive view of federal power over economic matters; the Rehnquist Court has reversed that trend. The Rehnquist Court has not launched an all-out assault on the Warren Court's precedents, as many conservatives hoped, but as Yarbrough shows it has embarked on important new departures. Thoughtful, wide-ranging, intelligently written, this book will stand as the finest study of the Rehnquist Court for years to come.

This book is intended to give readers a sense of the richness of Supreme Court litigation. The cases heard by the court are, first and foremost, cases, disputes involving real people with real stories. The accidents and twists of circumstance that propelled their lives into the rarefied arena of the Supreme Court are often compelling drama.

The American Political Process examines both the formal institutions of government and organizations such as political parties and pressure groups. It analyses how these bodies interact in the making of public policy in the United States in order to provide an understanding of contemporary American politics. The new seventh edition of the text has been thoroughly updated and revised with entirely new material on: * the 2000 Presidential election and George W. Bush's presidency * the September 11th attacks and the 'war on terrorism' * the 2002 mid-term elections * controversial issues such as abortion and gun control. Each chapter includes a variety of useful tables and diagrams, suggestions for further reading and relevant websites and a glossary of key terms. Written with admirable clarity, this new edition is the ideal textbook for students of American politics and society.

The Decline and Fall of the Supreme Court examines the contemporary work of the U.S. Supreme Court and the advice and consent role of the Senate with regard to nominees to the Court. After presenting historical background on the intentions of the federalists and 20th-century jurisprudence, the work describes the baleful effects of the recent theory known as "legal realism." The author examines the most dramatic of those effects--the polarized, polarizing, and partisan confirmation hearings with which the United States has become familiar--beginning with Abe Fortas and culminating with Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. This study will be of interest to scholars and laypeople in American history, political science, and law.

This new edition of this classic history of the Supreme Court discusses the selection, nomination, and appointment of each of the Justices who have sat on the U.S. Supreme Court since 1789. Abraham provides a fascinating account of the presidential motivations behind each nomination, examining how each appointee's performance on the bench fulfilled, or disappointed, presidential expectations.

This book analyzes why the Rehnquist Court never fulfilled expectations for the reversal of liberal judicial decisions from the Warren and Burger Courts. At its conservative high point in 1991-1992 the Supreme Court was dominated by seven justices who had dependably conservative voting records over the course of their early careers. Five of these justices were appointed in the 1980s and early 1990s by Reagan and Bush, presidents who made concerted efforts to appoint judicial officers who would undo liberal precedents. This is the first book to focus on scholars' growing recognition that the Rehnquist Court has not been as conservative as most presumed it would be. In focusing on Justice Antonin Scalia, whose role inadvertently contributed to the Court's failure to achieve conservative goals, the study examines how individual justices can affect Supreme Court decisions through their judicial behavior.