Judges on Judging

by O'Brien, David M.

• ISBN13: 9781452227832
• ISBN10: 1452227837
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-10-02
• Publisher: Cq Pr

Summary

Thoroughly revised and updated for this fourth edition, Judges on Judging offers insights into the judicial philosophies and political views of those on the bench. Broad in scope, this one-of-a-kind book features off-the-bench writings and speeches in which Supreme Court justices, as well as lower federal and state court judges, discuss the judicial process, constitutional and statutory interpretation, judicial federalism, and the role of the judiciary. Engaging introductory material provides students with necessary thematic and historical context making this book the perfect supplement to present a nuanced view of the judiciary.

Author Biography

David M. O'Brien is Leone Reaves and George W. Spicer Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia. He has served as a Judicial Fellow and a research associate in the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Chief Justice at the United States Supreme Court. He is author and co-author of numerous books, including To Dream of Dreams: Religious Freedom and Constitutional Politics in Postwar Japan (1996), Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics, 9th Edition (2011)-which won the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award, the two-volume casebook, Constitutional Law and Politics, 8th Edition (2011), Animal Sacrifice Religious Freedom: Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (2004), and the annual Supreme Court Watch.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Judicial Review and American Politics: Historical and Political Perspectives
Introduction	p. 13
The Doctrine of Judicial Review: Mr. Marshall, Mr. Jefferson, and Mr. Marbury	p. 19
The Supreme Court in the American System of Government	p. 33
The Two Faces of Judicial Activism	p. 42
The Dynamics of the Judicial Process
Introduction	p. 57
Advice and Consent in Theory and Practice	p. 83
The "Fight" Theory versus the "Truth" Theory	p. 93
The Adversary Judge: The Experience of the Trial Judge	p. 97
The Business of the U.S. District Courts	p. 106
What I Ate for Breakfast and Other Mysteries of Judicial Decision Making	p. 115
Whose Federal Judiciary Is It Anyway?	p. 121
What Really Goes on at the Supreme Court	p. 127
The Supreme Court's Conference	p. 131
Deciding What to Decide: The Docket and the Rule of Four	p. 135
The Role of Oral Argument	p. 144
The Dissent: A Safeguard of Democracy	p. 149
The Judiciary and the Constitution
Introduction	p. 155
Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States	p. 163
The Path of Law	p. 171
The Judge as a Legislator	p. 178
The Notion of a Living Constitution	p. 182
A Relativistic Constitution	p. 193
The Jurisprudence of Judicial Restraint: A Return to the Moorings	p. 205
Tradition and Morality in Constitutional Law	p. 216
What Am I, a Potted Plant? The Case Against Strict Constructionism	p. 223
Originalism: The Lesser Evil	p. 228
Judging	p. 237
The Constitution: A Living Document	p. 244
The Constitution of the United States: Contemporary Ratification	p. 249
On Constitutional Interpretation	p. 261
Speaking in a Judicial Voice: Reflections on Roe v. Wade	p. 269
Our Democratic Constitution	p. 276
Against Constitutional Theory	p. 291
Our Dual Constitutional System: The Bill of Rights and the States
Introduction	p. 301
The Bill of Rights	p. 307
Guardians of Our Liberties-State Courts No Less Than Federal	p. 315
First Things First: Rediscovering the States' Bills of Rights	p. 324
What Does-and Does Not-All State Constitutional Law	p. 332
Constitution of the United States, Article III	p. 345
The Federalist No. 78, Alexander Hamilton	p. 347
Selected Bibliography of Off-the-Bench Commentaries	p. 353
Time Chart of Members of the Supreme Court of the United States	p. 377
About the Editor	p. 381
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