Cushman, Clare.  Courtwatchers: eyewitness accounts in Supreme Court history.  Rowman & Littlefield, 2011.  312p index afp; ISBN 9781442212459, $35.00; ISBN 9781442212473 e-book, contact publisher for price. Reviewed in 2012apr CHOICE.
49-4734  KF8742  2011-19794 CIP 

Cushman (director of publications, Supreme Court Historical Society) has written a truly entertaining and informative work on the nation’s highest court. The chapters are organized around themes such as the first years of the Supreme Court, appointment and confirmation of justices, circuit riding, feuds among the justices, how justices manage their workload, oral argument, a justice’s first year on the Court, stories by the law clerks, and how to know when to step down from the Court. Each chapter is completely infused with stories from those who were there, such as the justices, journalists, attorneys, spouses, children, and friends. Drawing from firsthand accounts, journals, letters, interviews, and books, the author has painted as rich a tapestry of life inside the Court as could possibly be imagined. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the history and culture of the Supreme Court. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. — M. W. Bowers, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Davis, Richard.  Justices and journalists: the U.S. Supreme Court and the media.  Cambridge, 2011.  241p index; ISBN 9780521879255, $90.00; ISBN 9780521704663  pbk, $28.99. Reviewed in 2011nov CHOICE.
49-1743  K487  2010-31683 CIP 

Davis (Brigham Young Univ.) provides his readers with a fascinating discussion of the history of “going public” by members of this nation’s highest judicial body. Davis’s volume transports the reader back to the early years of the Court, and includes a discussion of the activities of members of the Roberts Court. Davis isolates a number of general reasons, institutional and individual, why members of the Court have tried to shape press coverage and public opinion. His book is also filled with examples of the various means that justices have used to shape perceptions of themselves and the institution; these include opinions, interviews, and speeches. While Davis’s work is historically broad in its scope, a content analysis of stories from the New York Times and NBC Nightly News provides particular insight into the years from 1968 to 2007. This book will appeal to individuals interested in the Court, and students of the media will also find this book most interesting. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, undergraduate students, graduate students, and research faculty. — P. Watkins, Saint Joseph’s College

Fried, Charles.  Saying what the law is: the constitution in the Supreme Court.  Harvard, 2004.  319p index afp ISBN 0-674-01302-6, $29.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2004oct CHOICE.
42-1227  KF4550  2003-62495 CIP 

Fried (law, Harvard) probes the depths of American constitutional law with a judicious mixture of knowledge, wisdom, and common sense. His analysis covers the fundamentals of American constitutionalism including judicial review, federalism, separation of powers, speech, religion, liberty, property, and equality. Fried focuses on the judicial doctrines that have emerged over the years as Supreme Court judges have attempted to maintain constitutional integrity and consistency in a highly diverse society. In tracing the evolution of the federal system, he concentrates on the federal commerce clause balanced by the “counterforce” of state power, the Tenth Amendment, and sovereign immunity. He suggests that First Amendment may best be understood as protecting “freedom of the mind,” a limit on governmental power to interfere with one’s liberty to think and express one’s thoughts, but, he argues, the Court’s treatment of the religion clause has been a “jumble of doctrine, conflicting precedents, and uncertain principles.” Fried also grapples with the elusive concept–equality–including the controversial attempt of the government to remedy past and present inequalities. In sum, Fried deals forthrightly with the complexities, nuances, contradictions, and formulae that have become vital components of American constitutional jurisprudence. This book is to be read, studied, digested, and reread.  Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — R. J. Steamer, University of Massachusetts at Boston

Hoffer, Peter Charles.  The Supreme Court: an essential history, by Peter Charles Hoffer, Williamjames Hull Hoffer, and N.E.H. Hull.  University Press of Kansas, 2007.  491p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780700615384, $34.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2008feb CHOICE.
45-3474  KF8742  2007-16900 CIP 

For those looking for a concise one-volume history of the Supreme Court–its major rulings, its political context, and its major justices–this is the book. Organizing their text around the terms of office of the 15 chief justices who presided over the court between 1789 and 2005, the authors masterfully weave together accounts of doctrinal developments, the political crises that engendered them, and the often larger-than-life personalities of the Court’s most significant justices. One sees US history in a new light, and comes to appreciate the role of the Supreme Court in shaping that history. This is not a coffee-table book or panegyric to the law, but a rigorous and fair-minded account of one of America’s most important governmental institutions by a trio of distinguished historians. It is a stunning achievement, of great value to a wide range of readers: professional historians and legal scholars who need a refresher course or want to extend the range of their expertise; historians who want to explore the role of the Supreme Court in American history; and college students who want to understand the role of the Court in the US system of government.  Summing Up: Essential. All levels. — M. M. Feeley, University of California, Berkeley

McCloskey, Robert G.  The American Supreme Court, rev. by Sanford Levinson.  5th ed.  Chicago, 2010.  359p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780226556864, $55.00; ISBN 9780226556871  pbk, $19.00. Reviewed in 2011jan CHOICE.
48-2971  KF8742  2009-46336 CIP 

McCloskey (1919-1969) was a professor of government at Harvard. Levinson (Univ. of Texas, Austin) was one of McCloskey’s PhD students and has been the custodian of this magisterial work since the second edition was published in 1994. The fifth edition carries on the tradition of earlier iterations, keeping McCloskey’s keen insights, analytical framework, and normative instincts intact (chapters 1-7). Levinson supplemented the original argument with chapters on both civil rights/liberties, including excellent attention to recent landmark cases and controversies (chapter 8), and the development of the American “welfare” (as opposed to “regulatory”) state over the last several decades, with a compelling discussion of the Supreme Court as the “monitor” of this new state. Both chapters are true to McCloskey’s spirit, situating the Court within the political system, but they also draw upon Levinson’s remarkable intellectual range and invite the reader to continue asking the still-salient questions McCloskey set forth a half-century earlier. This edition concludes with the original epilogue, Levinson’s updated coda, and a superb bibliographic essay of nearly 50 pages. One must exercise caution with such a charge, but this work is genuinely a must-have book.  Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — B. K. Pinaire, Lehigh University

The Oxford guide to United States Supreme Court decisions, ed. by Kermit L. Hall and James W. Ely Jr.  2nd ed.  Oxford, 2009.  499p bibl indexes afp; ISBN 9780195379396, $35.00. Reviewed in 2009oct CHOICE.
47-0643  KF4548  2008-23763 CIP 

The Supreme Court, the pinnacle of the US judicial system, may appear hidden to many people even though its decisions touch upon everyday lives. This guide, a much needed second edition (1st, 1999), updates its predecessor with more than 50 new decisions on hot-button topics such as the death penalty, eminent domain, and religious displays. Arranged alphabetically by case, the guide features entries for over 450 of the Supreme Court’s most important cases. Each entry includes vital data such as the justices’ vote, author of the Court’s opinion, information on concurring or dissenting opinions, decision year, and the United States Reports citation. In addition to a case index, the guide offers an essential topical index for users unfamiliar with case names, along with several handy reference resources, e.g., the text of the US Constitution, a glossary of common Court and constitutional law terms, detailed lists of Court nominations and confirmations, and a listing of the justices’ successions. This one-volume work serves as an important introduction to Supreme Court cases and belongs in all reference collections.  Summing Up: Essential. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. — J. A. Hardenbrook, Millikin University 

Oyez: U.S. Supreme Court Media.  Internet Resource. Reviewed in 2010aug CHOICE.
http://www.oyez.org/ 
47-7146     

[Revisited May’10] Accessing information about the Supreme Court traditionally was difficult and expensive. Either one had to be a specialist in government documents to find information such as Court decisions or pending cases, or one had to be a lawyer and perhaps subscribe to expensive proprietary services such as Westlaw or LexisNexis. It also did not help that the Court itself did not make many of its resources publicly accessible. But the Internet has changed that, and there now exist many good sites that provide reliable Supreme Court information. The official Web page for the Supreme Court of the US http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ (CH, May’02, 39-5486) is one good source of information. The Cornell University Legal Information Institute http://www.law.cornell.edu/ (CH, May’05, 42-5004) provides Supreme Court information and more, and the Supreme Court blog http://www.scotusblog.com/ has objective information and more gossipy news. But Oyez is unique, offering material found on these sites as well as features located nowhere else that students will enjoy. Oyez‘s most distinguishing feature is that it contains the oral and written transcripts of most major Supreme Court cases since 1955. The Court records its oral arguments, and through funding from the National Science Foundation and other groups, Oyez has posted many of these transcripts. Students can listen to actual oral arguments and hear lawyers and the justices. Additionally, the site provides video tours of the Court. One can also find judicial biographies, current calendar or docket information, past decisions, and stories about past and pending cases. The organization is very user-friendly, and it provides links to other appropriate Supreme Court Web sites. Oyez is an excellent one-stop educational Web page on the Supreme Court that is fun, informative, and enjoyable to use. Students will especially like the oral recordings and transcripts.  Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. — D. Schultz, Hamline University 

Rosen, Jeffrey.  The Supreme Court: the personalities and rivalries that defined America.  Times Books, 2007 (c2006).  274p bibl index ISBN 0-8050-8182-8, $25.00; ISBN 9780805081824, $25.00. Reviewed in 2007jul CHOICE.
44-6516  KF8744  2006-50941 CIP 

Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University and legal affairs editor of The New Republic, has written widely on the US Supreme Court. This book, a companion to the recent PBS television series The Supreme Court, offers fascinating insights into the inner workings of one of the nation’s most mysterious institutions. Unlike many books that deal almost exclusively with the Supreme Court as an institution, Rosen’s focus is on the people who contribute to the development of the Court’s decisions. He begins with a discussion of judicial temperament that encompasses such qualities as personality, character, education, work habits, and behavior when interacting with others. Then the author contrasts persons with differing temperaments and their approach to policy making in different historical eras. The pairings are John Marshall and Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall Harlan and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Hugo Blackmun and William O. Douglas, and William H. Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia. Rosen ends with an interesting look at the temperament of new Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. This book is must reading for anyone who wants to better understand how the Supreme Court works. Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels. — R. Stidham, Appalachian State University 

Savage, David G.  Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court.  5th ed.  CQ Press, 2010.  2v bibl indexes afp; ISBN 9780872894235, $410.00. Reviewed in 2010dec CHOICE.
48-1842  KF87  2010-17634 CIP 

Journalist Savage has outdone himself with this fifth edition (4th ed., CH, Dec’04, 42-1973), which is not only timely but highly informative and readable. His excellent reporting skills and insights are evident in his ability to include those matters of the Supreme Court that are of interest to both scholars and laypersons. An example is “Appointments and Disappointments … Presidents and Judges,” which discusses the relationships between certain Supreme Court justices and US presidents. Another example is “Quotes and Quips from the Supreme Court: Who Said It?” Among quotations from various justices is the famous “fire in the theatre” quip by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., in Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 at 52 (1919). Savage begins with the origins of the Supreme Court and includes every pertinent aspect of the Court up to and including 2010. The varied, unique appendixes include such items of interest as the Supreme Court nominations from 1789 to 2010, ending with the nomination of Elena Kagan. Also included is an appendix titled “Acts of Congress Held Unconstitutional.” Savage’s understanding and experience with the Court have resulted in an insightful, authoritative source to rival all others. This guide is absolutely crucial for academic, public, and school libraries. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. — N. J. Goodman, University of Texas-Pan American 

The Supreme Court compendium: data, decisions and developments, by Lee Epstein et al. 5th ed. CQ Press, 2012. 836p bibl index afp ISBN 9781608717439, $165.00.  Reviewed in 2012may CHOICE
49-4833 KF8742 CIP

For the systematic study of the United States Supreme Court, understanding only four things may be all that is necessary: the US Constitution, the political environment in which the Court works, the Court’s own history, and the values and experiences of the individual justices.  Epstein and her colleagues have produced another edition of one of the truly indispensable tools for the study of the Court.  The fifth edition of The Supreme Court Compendium (4th ed., CH, Oct’07, 45-0643; 1st ed., CH, Sep’94, 32-0024) is solidly packed with statistics and information on the work of the Court, the decisions issued, and the characteristics and backgrounds of the justices.  New material addresses the roles of Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, both of whom joined the Court since the publication of the fourth edition.  The introductory chapter provides an institutional perspective, and chapter 9 analyzes the Court’s impact.  Finally, new and revised databases are the sources for many of the statistics.  Combine the Compendium with The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, edited by Kermit Hall, James Ely Jr., and Joel Grossman (2nd ed., CH, Nov’05, 43-1329; 1st ed., CH, Mar’93, 30-4085), and a researcher has two of the crucial tools for any serious undertaking.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers. — J. E. Stephens,  U.S. Court of Appeals

Supreme Court of the United States.  Internet Resource. Reviewed in 2002may CHOICE.
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ 
39-5480     

This official Web site of the US Supreme Court has proven to be a very valuable resource. Now in its second year, the site includes the slip opinions of the latest cases, which are filed within hours of the bench opinion and kept on the site until an opinion has been published in the United States Reports. Also included is documentation of the processes of the Court, such as an overview of the Court and its rules, the Court and constitutional interpretation, and traditions of the Court. Most documents are available only in Adobe pdf format, which requires Adobe acrobat reader software (a link is provided on this site to Adobe where users can download this software for free). Several other sites, in existence before this resource, provide excellent coverage of the Court and offer much of the same content in more bandwidth-friendly html format. These include Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute Supreme Court Collection (CH, Jan’99) http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/; Findlaw: Supreme Court Opinions (CH, Sup’98) http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html; and Oyez Project (CH, Sup’98) http://www.oyez.org/ for audio files of oral arguments. One major drawback of this official site is its docket feature, which requires users to be familiar enough with the current Court docket to search for the case that interests them. A browse-by-date docket feature, available on other sites such as Washington Post.com: Courts http://washingtonpost.findlaw.com/supreme_court/resources.html would make this site much easier to use. The search engine for locating Court documents within the current term is excellent and readily retrieved documents by both docket number and petitioner name. Useful for researchers interested in the most current slip opinions of the Court, this site is recommended for both public and academic libraries. — R. H. McDonald, Auburn University 

Vile, John R.  Essential Supreme Court decisions: summaries of leading cases in U.S. constitutional law.  15th ed.  Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.  535p index afp; ISBN 9781442203846, $59.95; ISBN 9781442203853  pbk, $24.95. Reviewed in 2011jan CHOICE.
48-2461  KF4547  2010-8375 CIP 

The 15th edition of Essential Supreme Court Decisions remains the most comprehensive single collection of the Court’s decisions. As with earlier editions, it is indispensable for the study of the work of the Supreme Court. Decisions are organized by constitutional articles, the Bill of Rights, and amendments. For example, chapter 8 includes decisions ranging from Barron v. Baltimore (1833) to Duncan v. Louisiana (1968), all of which address the application of provisions of the Bill of Rights to the various states. Each chapter includes an analysis of the relevant decisions and the context in which the Court acted. Appendixes provide the text of the Constitution, a glossary of legal terms, an alphabetical listing of cases, and a chronological listing of cases by chief justice. The ratified amendments to the Constitution are listed as “articles,” reflecting the drafting terminology of “articles of amendment.” Thus readers find in the constitutional text “Article I,” ratified in 1791, which includes the Bill of Rights provisions commonly known as the First Amendment. Though this may be misleading for some readers, it does not represent a textual flaw in this excellent collection. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. — J. E. Stephens, U.S. Court of Appeals 

Editor’s note: The following pertinent titles will be reviewed in forthcoming issues: 

Leiter, Richard A.  Landmark Supreme Court cases: the most influential decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States: v.1: Abortion to death penalty; v.2: Due process to privacy; v.3: Freedom of religion to taxation and additional cases, by Richard A. Leiter and Roy M. Mersky. 2nd ed. Facts On File, 2012. 3v bibl index afp ISBN 9780816069576, $250.00  

The Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978.  Gale, part of Cengage Learning.  Internet Resource.  Contact publisher for pricing. URL: http://gale.cengage.com/

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