Taking back the Constitution : activist judges and the next age of American law / Mark Tushnet.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Tushnet, Mark, 1945- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Constitutional law--United States.
• United States.
• United States. Supreme Court.

Genre:

• History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 308 pages)

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Connecticut ; London : Yale University Press, [2020]

Summary:

How the Supreme Court’s move to the right has distorted both logic and the Constitution What Supreme Court justices do is far more than just “calling balls and strikes.” The Court has never simply evaluated laws and arguments in light of permanent and immutable constitutional meanings. Social, moral, and yes, political ideas have always played into the justices’ impressions of how they think a case should be decided. Mark Tushnet traces the ways constitutional thought has evolved, from the liberalism of the New Deal and the Great Society to the Reagan conservatism that has been dominant since the 1980s. Looking at the current crossroads in the constitutional order, Tushnet explores the possibilities of either a Trumpian entrenchment of the most extreme ideas of the Reagan philosophy, or a dramatic and destabilizing move to the left. Wary of either outcome, he offers a passionate and informed argument for replacing judicial supremacy with popular constitutionalism—a move that would restore to the other branches of government a role in deciding constitutional questions.

Contents:

• Frontmatter
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Calling Balls and Strikes
• 2 Originalisms
• 3 Playing Politics
• 4 “We’ve Done Enough”: The Constitutional Law of Race
• 5 The Court and Conservative Movements
• 6 Culture Wars, Yesterday and Today
• 7 Strengthening a New Constitutional Order: Partisan Entrenchment and Fulfilling Campaign Pledges
• 8 The Business Agenda
• 9 Deconstructing the Administrative State
• 10 Possibilities Thwarted and Revived
• 11 The Weaponized First Amendment
• 12 Winning Elections, Enacting Statutes
• 13 Putting Courts on the Progressive Agenda
• 14 Playing Constitutional Hardball
• 15 Popular Constitutionalism Versus Judicial Supremacy
• 16 Amending the Constitution
• Conclusion: 2020 and After
• Appendix: Strategies of Supreme Court Decision-Making
• Notes
• Index

Notes:

• Description based on print version record.
• Includes index.

ISBN:

0-300-25290-0

OCLC:

1164198427