Search

Herman Schwartz, one of America's most brilliant liberal activist lawyers, has been a staunch champion of human rights and civil liberties for almost three decades. In this book, he offers us a penetrating study of the conservative campaign to "pack" the courts with judges more identified by their ideological affiliations than for their skill or their regard for the Constitution. It is in this campaign, the most active of its kind in history, that the Reagan administration has made a consistent effort to overturn Supreme Court rulings on abortion, school prayer, civil rights, criminal justice, and economic regulation. Schwartz details many of the controversial judicial nominations of the Reagan years, including those of such conservatives as Douglas Ginsberg, William H. Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, and Sandra Day O'Connor. Unlike most books on judicial nominations, this book devotes equal attention to the trial and appellate courts, describing the vital roles they play in the development and the application of American law. After assessing the impact that packing the courts with right-wing ideologies has had so far, Schwartz contemplates what the future may hold as America begins its third century under the Constitution.-- from Book Jacket.

"This book is a hillbilly's view of the South. It undertakes to present a picture of certain phases of Southern civilization and to suggest a few points for a program of reconstruction"--P. 3.