The Hollow Hope

by Rosenberg, Gerald N.

• ISBN13: 9780226727035
• ISBN10: 0226727033
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-05-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Liberals have acclaimed, and conservatives decried, reliance on courts as tools for changes. But while debate rages over whether the courtsshouldbe playing such a legislative role, Gerald N. Rosenberg poses a far more fundamental questioncancourts produce political and social reform? Rosenberg presents, with remarkable skill, an overwhelming case that efforts to use the courts to generate significant reforms in civil rights, abortion, and women's rights were largely failures. "The real strength ofThe Hollow Hope. . . is its resuscitation of American Politicsthe old-fashioned representative kindas a valid instrument of social change. Indeed, the flip side of Mr. Rosenberg's argument that courts don't do all that much is the refreshing view that politics in the best sense of the wordas deliberation and choice over economic and social changes, as well as over moral issuesis still the core of what makes America the great nation it is. . . . A book worth reading."Gary L. McDowell,The Washington Times

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	ix
Preface	xi
Introduction	1	(8)
The Dynamic and the Constrained Court	9	(33)
Part 1 Civil Rights
Introduction	39	(3)
Bound for Glory? Brown and the Civil Rights Revolution	42	(30)
Constraints, Conditions, and the Courts	72	(35)
Planting the Seeds of of Progress?	107	(50)
The Current of History	157	(18)
Part 2 Abortion and Women's Rights
Introduction	173	(2)
Transforming Women's Lives? The Courts and Abortion	175	(27)
Liberating Women? The Courts and Women's Rights	202	(26)
The Court as Catalyst?	228	(19)
The Tide of History	247	(24)
Part 3 The Environment, Reapportionment, and Criminal Law
Introduction	269	(2)
Cleaning House? The Courts, the Environment, and Reapportionment	271	(33)
Judicial Revolution? Litigation to Reform the Criminal Law	304	(32)
Conclusion: The Fly-Paper Court	336	(23)
Appendices
1. Black Children in Elementary and Secondary School with Whites: 1954--72	345	(3)
2. Blacks at Predominantly White Public Colleges and Universities	348	(1)
3. Black Voter Registration in the Southern States: Pre- and Post- Voting Rights Act	349	(1)
4. Laws and Actions Designed to Preserve Segregation	350	(2)
5. Method for Obtaining Information for Table 4.1 and Figure 4.1	352	(1)
6. Illegal Abortions	353	(3)
7. Method for Obtaining Information for Tables 8.1A, 8.1B, 8.2A, and 8.2B and for Figure 8.1 and 8.2	356	(3)
Case References	359	(8)
References	367	(48)
Index	415