Overview
In recent years, the justices of the Supreme Court have ruled definitively on such issues as abortion, school prayer, and military tribunals in the war on terror. They decided one of American history's most contested presidential elections. Yet for all their power, the justices never face election and hold their offices for life. This combination of influence and apparent unaccountability has led many to complain that there is something illegitimate--even undemocratic--about judicial authority.
In The Will of the People, Barry Friedman challenges that claim by showing that the Court has always been subject to a higher power: the American public. Judicial positions have been abolished, the justices' jurisdiction has been stripped, the Court has been packed, and unpopular decisions have been defied. For at least the past sixty years, the justices have made sure that their decisions do not stray too far from public opinion.
Friedman's pathbreaking account of the relationship between popular opinion and the Supreme Court--from the Declaration of Independence to the end of the Rehnquist court in 2005--details how the American people came to accept their most controversial institution and shaped the meaning of the Constitution.
Full Product Details
Author: Barry Friedman
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Imprint: Farrar Straus Giroux
Dimensions:
Width: 16.20cm
, Height: 4.90cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.871kg
ISBN: 9780374220341
ISBN 10: 0374220344
Pages: 614
Publication Date: 29 September 2009
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Undefined
Publisher's Status: Unknown
Availability: Out of stock
Reviews
Praise for The Will of the People <br> <p> Friedman's book admirably manages to distill more than two hundred years of constitutional history into a coherent narrative that attends both to continuity and to change. And a distressingly small number of legal academics can match his lucidity or his ability to turn a phrase. --Justin Driver, The New Republic <br> [A] thought-provoking and authoritative history . . . Friedman's contribution to this discussion is the breadth and detail of his historical canvas, and it's a significant one. --Emily Bazelon, The New York Times Book Review <br> Serious and academic in tone, this book tackles a complex subject. --Becky Kennedy, Library Journal <br> Friedman offers a fresh, dynamic rethinking of the role of the Constitution and the Court that puts democratic politics at the center of the story. -- Publishers Weekly <br> We think of the Supreme Court's constitutional decisions as lofty, lonely, unchallengeable. But in tr
Praise for The Will of the People <br> <p>“Friedman’s book admirably manages to distill more than two hundred years of constitutional history into a coherent narrative that attends both to continuity and to change. And a distressingly small number of legal academics can match his lucidity or his ability to turn a phrase.” —Justin Driver, The New Republic <br> “[A] thought-provoking and authoritative history . . . Friedman’s contribution to this discussion is the breadth and detail of his historical canvas, and it’s a significant one.” —Emily Bazelon, The New York Times Book Review  <br> “Serious and academic in tone, this book tackles a complex subject.” —Becky Kennedy, Library Journal <br> “Friedman offers a fresh, dynamic rethinking of the role of the Constitution and the Court that puts democratic politics at the center of the story.” — Publishers Weekly <br> “We think of the Sup
