A People's History of the Supreme Court : The Men and Women Whose Cases and Decisions Have Shaped Our Constitution: Revised Edition

Beginning with the debates over judicial power in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to controversial rulings on slavery, racial segregation, free speech, school prayer, abortion, and gay rights, constitutional scholar Peter Irons offers a penetrating look at the highest court in the land. Here are revealing sketches of every justice from John Jay to Samuel Alito, as well as portraits of such legal giants as John Marshall, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Earl Warren, and Thurgood Marshall. Astute, provocative, and extremely accessible, A People's History of the Supreme Court illuminates and pays tribute to a system of justice that both reflects and parallels our country's remarkable legal history. The revised edition has been updated to include recent landmark cases and changes on the bench. Foreword / Howard Zinn -- Introduction : "The genius of the Constitution" -- Section 1 : "To establish a more perfect union" -- ch. 1. Morally sinful by the word of God -- ch. 2. The exigencies of the Union -- ch. 3. Dishonorable to the national character -- ch. 4. The supreme law of the land -- ch. 5. The country must finally decide -- ch. 6. The plot thickens fast -- ch. 7. The nauseous project of amendments -- Section 2 : "It is a constitution we are expounding" -- ch 8. The Court is now sitting -- ch. 9. To say what the law is -- ch. 10. These jarring and discordant judgments -- ch. 11. The good and the wise -- ch. 12. Great, good, and excellent man! -- Section 3 : "Justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery" -- ch. 13. A small, pleasant-looking Negro -- ch. 14. Beings of an inferior order -- ch. 15. Another explosion will soon come -- ch. 16. A higher law than the Constitution -- ch. 17. An evil eye and an unequal hand -- ch. 18. Our Constitution is color-blind -- Section 4 : "Liberty in a social organization" -- ch. 19. The spectre of socialism -- Munn v. Illinois (1877) -- Mugler v. Kansas (1877) -- Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway v. Minnesota (1890) -- United States v. E.C. Knight Co. (1895) -- Pollock v. Farmers' Loan Co. (1895) -- In re Debs (1895) Ch. 20. The work was light and healthful -- Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897) -- Holden v. Hardy (1898) -- Lochner v. New York (1905) -- Muller v. Oregon (1908) -- Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923) -- ch. 21. Falsely shouting fire in a theatre -- Schenck v. United States (1919) -- Debs v. United States (1919) -- Abrams v. United States (1919) -- ch. 22. Every idea is an incitement -- Gitlow v. New York (1925) -- Whitney v. California (1927) -- De Jonge v. Oregon (1937) -- Herndon v. Lowry (1937) -- ch. 23. The general welfare of the United States -- Home Building & Loan Assn. v. Blaisdell (1934) -- Nebbia v. New York (1934) -- Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935) -- United States v. Butler (1936) -- ch. 24. To save the Constitution from the Court -- Carter v. Carter Coal Co. (1936) -- Morehead v. Tipaldo (1936) -- West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937) -- ch. 25. Hughes thundered out the decision -- NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Co. (1937) -- Section 5 : "Beyond the reach of majorities" -- ch. 26. We live by symbols -- United STates v. Carolene Products Co. (1938) -- Minersville School Board v. Gobitis (1940) -- West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) -- ch. 27. A Jap's a Jap -- Hirabayashi v. United States (1943) -- Korematsu v. United States (1944) -- Ex parte Endo (1944)" -- ch. 28. My little soul is overjoyed -- Gaines v. Canada (1938) -- Sipuel v. Oklahoma Board of Regents (1948) -- Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) -- Sweatt v. Painter (1950) -- Dennis v. United States (1951) Ch. 29. Give me the colored doll -- Brown v. Board of Education (1954) -- ch. 30. War on the Constitution -- Brown v. Board of Education, cont. (1954) -- Cooper v. Aaron (1958) -- ch. 31. A better place because he lived -- Everson v. Board of Education (1947) -- McCollum v. Illinois (148) -- Engel v. Vitale (1962) -- Abington Township v. Schempp (1963) -- Lee v. Weisman (1992) -- Reynolds v. Sims (1964) -- Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United STates (1964) -- Miranda v. Arizona (1966) -- United STates v. O'Brien (1968) -- Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) -- New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) -- Section 6 : "A right of personal privacy" -- ch. 32. You've been taking pure thalidomide -- Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942) -- Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) -- ch. 33. The raw edges of Human existence -- Roe v. Wade (1973) -- ch. 34. Truly a Pandora's box -- Regents v. Bakke (1978) -- Bowers v. Hardwick (186) -- ch. 35. I fear for the future -- Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989) -- Texas v. Johnson (1989) -- Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. (1989) -- Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) Section 7 : "It is a cultural war" -- ch. 36. One nation under God -- Board of Airport Commissioners v. Jews for Jesus (1987) -- Westside School District v. Mergens (1990) -- Center Moriches School District v. Lamb's Chapel (1993) -- Rosenberger v. University of Virginia (1995) -- Santa Fe School District v. Doe (2000) -- Elk Grove School District v. Newdow (2004) -- McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky (2005) -- ch. 37. The values we share with a wider civilization -- Romer v. Evans 91996) -- Lawrence v. Texas (2003) -- Cruzan v. Missouri (1990) -- Washington v. Glucksberg (1997) -- Vacco v. Quill (1997) -- Stenberg v. Carhart (2000) -- ch. 38. A blank check for the President -- Bush v. Gore (2000) -- Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) -- Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) -- Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2005) -- Padilla v. Rumsfeld (2005) -- Rasul v. Bush (2005) -- Epilogue : "One of us will have a pick" -- United States Constitution -- The Justices of the Supreme Court -- Notes -- Sources for further reading -- Index.

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)

Publishers Weekly

Presenting a sophisticated narrative history of the Supreme Court, Irons (The Courage of Their Convictions, etc.) illustrates the beguiling legacy left by the Constitution's framers, who conjured up the high Court without providing an instruction manual. Irons is clear about where his ideological sympathy lies, calling Justice William Brennan "my judicial ideal and inspiration" and quoting Brennan's famous formulation that "the genius of the Constitution" rests in "the adaptability of its great principles to cope with current problems and current needs." Irons traces the development of the Court's peculiar institutional workings from its first proceedings under Chief Justice John Jay to the struggle for individual liberties during the successive Warren, Burger and Rehnquist Courts. In characterizing the Court as a bastion of racism, classism and sexism prior to Earl Warren's ascendancy, he often tends to use extended arguments when quick jabs would suffice. But as he delves into the personalities of litigants, justices and senators (who, as far back as 1831, fought fiercely over the confirmations of Supreme Court nominees), Irons proves himself a master of American legal and political history. He is particularly lucid when recounting how Reconstruction reforms, such as the Fourteenth Amendment, that were intended to ensure the liberties of individuals were co-opted by the Gilded Age Court to protect the liberties of business. Irons combines careful research with a populist passion. In doing so, he breathes abundant life into old documents and reminds readers that today's fiercest arguments about rights are the continuation of the endless American conversation. BOMC selection. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

A comprehensive history of the people and cases that have changed history, this is the definitive account of the nation's highest court featuring a forward by Howard Zinn 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." To understand key issues facing the supreme court and the current battle for the court's ideological makeup, there is no better guide than Peter Irons. This revised and updated edition includes a foreword by Howard Zinn. "A sophisticated narrative history of the Supreme Court . . . [Irons] breathes abundant life into old documents and reminds readers that today's fiercest arguments about rights are the continuation of the endless American conversation." - Publisher's Weekly (starred review) Le site de l'éditeur indique : "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.” To understand key issues facing the supreme court and the current battle for the court's ideological makeup, there is no better guide than Peter Irons. This revised and updated edition includes a foreword by Howard Zinn." Beginning with the debates over judicial power in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to controversial rulings on slavery, racial segregation, free speech, school prayer, abortion, and gay rights, [in this text, the author] offers a penetrating look at the highest court in the land. Here are revealing sketches of every justice from John Jay to Samuel Alito, as well as portraits of such legal giants as John Marshall, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Earl Warren, and Thurgood Marshall. [The text] illuminates and pays tribute to a system of justice that both reflects and parallels our country's remarkable legal history