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Packing the Court |
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| Book: Hardcover | 5.98 x 9.01in | 336 pages | ISBN 9781594202193 | 25 Jun 2009 | The Penguin Press | 18 - AND UP |
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From renowned political theorist and Pulitzer Prize winner James MacGregor Burns, an illuminating critique of how an unstable, unaccountable, and frequently partisan Supreme Court has come to wield more power than the founding fathers ever intended
For decades, James MacGregor Burns has been one of the great masters of the study of power and leadership in America. Now he turns his eye to an institution of government that he believes has become more powerful, and more partisan, than the founding fathers ever intended-the Supreme Court. Much as we would like to believe that the Court remains aloof from ideological politics, Packing the Court reveals how often justices behave like politicians in robes.
Few Americans appreciate that the framers of the Constitution envisioned a much more limited role for the Supreme Court than it has come to occupy. In keeping with the founders' desire for balanced government, the Constitution does not grant the Supreme Court the power of judicial review-that is, the ability to veto acts of Congress and the president. Yet throughout its history, as Packing the Court details, the Supreme Court has blocked congressional laws and, as a result, often derailed progressive reform. The term "packing the court" is usually applied to FDR's failed attempt to expand the size of the Court after a conservative bench repeatedly overturned key elements of the New Deal. But Burns shows that FDR was not the only president to confront a high court that seemed bent on fighting popular mandates for change, nor was he the only one to try to manipulate the bench for political ends. Many of our most effective leaders-from Jefferson to Jackson, Lincoln to FDR- have clashed with powerful justices who refused to recognize the claims of popularly elected majorities. Burns contends that these battles have threatened the nation's welfare in the most crucial moments of our history, from the Civil War to the Great Depression-and may do so again.
Given the erratic and partisan nature of Supreme Court appointments, Burns believes we play political roulette with the Constitution with each election cycle. Now, eight years after Bush v. Gore, ideological justices have the tightest grip on the Court in recent memory. Drawing on more than two centuries of American history, Packing the Court offers a clear-eyed critique of judicial rule and a bold proposal to rein in the Supreme Court's power over the elected branches.
Packing the Court
Prologue
One. The First Courtpackers
Two. John Marshall's Constitution
Three. The Dred Decision
Four. War Powers: Lincoln vs. Taney
Five. Deconstruction: Republican Reversal
Six. A Court for the Gilded Age
Seven. The Triumphant Mr. Taft
Eight. FDR's Boldest Gamble
Nine. "Wild Horses": The Roosevelt Court
Ten. Leadership: The Warren Court
Eleven. Republicans as Activists
Twelve. Hard Right: The Cheney-Bush Court
Epilogue: Ending Judicial Supremacy
The Justices of the Supreme Court
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
"Here a legendary American scholar has brought us an irresistible gift-a brilliant, compelling and consistently surprising history of the Supreme Court's role in American life. Like all of Burns's work, Packing the Court looks backward and forward, drawing crucial lessons from the past that should guide every American leader and citizen today. This important volume is basic and essential and should be vigorously read and debated by all of us."
-Michael Beschloss
"Provocative and timely... Mr. Burns uses his intimate knowledge of America's past to situate judicial rulings within a political and social context, even as he dissects the practical consequences of particular decisions."
-Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"Packing the Court is just what you would expect of Burns: a readable and accessible history, full of memorable details... I was engaged, entertained and provoked by this surprising and energetic history of the Court."
-Jeffrey Rosen, The Washington Post
"In graceful prose, Burns takes us on a quick historical tour of many famous and infamous decisions, demonstrating how the court, frequently imagined as the protector of the weak and powerless, has more often been the friend of the powerful and a 'a choke point for progressive reforms,' contemptuous of popular legislation."
-Kirkus Reviews
"The singular James MacGregor Burns never disappoints, not with any of his more than two dozen books. In Packing the Court he continues his unbroken streak, with yet another volume on the American experience, this one focused on the trajectory of the Supreme Court. The book is past and present at its best-a rigorous and revealing recounting of this most elusive and even reclusive of the three branches of government. Burns concludes with a clear caution: that failure to reform the nation's highest court risks having it deviate still further from what the Founders originally intended."
-Barbara Kellerman, author of Bad Leadership and Followership
"Provocative and well-written."
-Clive Crook, TheAtlantic.com
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