A History of the Supreme Court [Paperback]

the late Bernard Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195093879 | ISBN-13: 978-0195093872 | Publication Date: February 23, 1995

When the first Supreme Court convened in 1790, it was so ill-esteemed that its justices frequently resigned in favor of other pursuits. John Rutledge stepped down as Associate Justice to become a state judge in South Carolina; John Jay resigned as Chief Justice to run for Governor of New York; and Alexander Hamilton declined to replace Jay, pursuing a private law practice instead. As Bernard Schwartz shows in this landmark history, the Supreme Court has indeed travelled a long and interesting journey to its current preeminent place in American life.
In A History of the Supreme Court, Schwartz provides the finest, most comprehensive one-volume narrative ever published of our highest court. With impeccable scholarship and a clear, engaging style, he tells the story of the justices and their jurisprudence--and the influence the Court has had on American politics and society. With a keen ability to explain complex legal issues for the nonspecialist, he takes us through both the great and the undistinguished Courts of our nation's history. He provides insight into our foremost justices, such as John Marshall (who established judicial review in Marbury v. Madison, an outstanding display of political calculation as well as fine jurisprudence), Roger Taney (whose legacy has been overshadowed by Dred Scott v. Sanford), Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, and others. He draws on evidence such as personal letters and interviews to show how the court has worked, weaving narrative details into deft discussions of the developments in constitutional law. Schwartz also examines the operations of the court: until 1935, it met in a small room under the Senate--so cramped that the judges had to put on their robes in full view of the spectators. But when the new building was finally opened, one justice called it "almost bombastically pretentious," and another asked, "What are we supposed to do, ride in on nine elephants?" He includes fascinating asides, on the debate in the first Court, for instance, over the use of English-style wigs and gowns (the decision: gowns, no wigs); and on the day Oliver Wendell Holmes announced his resignation--the same day that Earl Warren, as a California District Attorney, argued his first case before the Court. The author brings the story right up to the present day, offering balanced analyses of the pivotal Warren Court and the Rehnquist Court through 1992 (including, of course, the arrival of Clarence Thomas).
In addition, he includes four special chapters on watershed cases: Dred Scott v. Sanford, Lochner v. New York, Brown v. Board of Education, and Roe v. Wade. Schwartz not only analyzes the impact of each of these epoch-making cases, he takes us behind the scenes, drawing on all available evidence to show how the justices debated the cases and how they settled on their opinions.
Bernard Schwartz is one of the most highly regarded scholars of the Supreme Court, author of dozens of books on the law, and winner of the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award. In this remarkable account, he provides the definitive one-volume account of our nation's highest court.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Bernard Schwartz's history treats the Court as "both a mirror and a motor--reflecting the development of the society which it serves and helping to move that society in the direction of the dominant jurisprudence of the day." Beginning with the 17th-century writings of Sir Edward Coke, which shaped much of the legal thinking of America's Founding Fathers, Schwartz considers each of the major eras of the Supreme Court's tenure, from its first term in 1790 (held in New York City) to the Rehnquist years. There are also four chapters that deal specifically with watershed cases: Dred Scott v. Sandford, Lochner v. New York, Brown v. Board of Education, and Roe v. Wade. Schwartz marshals a substantial amount of historical information to carry the story forward without getting stuck on minutiae.

From Publishers Weekly

Constitution scholar Schwartz ( Super Chief: Earl Warren and His Supreme Court ) provides a thorough, balanced and readable chronological overview of the highest court in the land. He mixes biographical sketches of justices like John Marshall with insightful analyses of major decisions, offering also a close look at four watershed cases, e.g., those regarding desegregation and abortion. Schwartz's account of the modern court, especially that headed by Warren, is lively and savvy, with a moderate-liberal slant. His history of the earlier court is less journalistic; nevertheless, he shows how the court slowly grew in role and stature, and how its decisions contributed vitally to an expanding federal economy and the rise of corporations. While Schwartz at times judiciously reevaluates scholarly controversies--such as his upgrade of long-denounced Dred Scott jurist Roger Taney--he skirts such issues as the growing argument that the right to abortion should be based on equal protection rather than privacy rights.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 23, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195093879
• ISBN-13: 978-0195093872
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #444,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Judges, Judgements, and Judicial Review, December 21, 2003

By 

Omer Belsky (Haifa, Israel) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: A History of the Supreme Court (Paperback)

Bernard Schwartz's "A History of the Supreme Court" is a readable if dry narrative of the 200 years of the Supreme Court between John Jay and William Rhenquist. The story of the supreme court is a complicated one, and for the most part, Schwartz tells it well. If his book is short on analysis and long on description, it is probably more due to the nature of the subject then to the qualities of the author.

Schwartz focuses on two main themes in the narrative. The first one, addressed in the Prologue and in the first few chapters, deal with the practice of Judicial Review in Anglo-Saxon common law, and especially in the early US, where under Chief Justice Marshall, the supreme court has been established as SUPREME - that is, in position to pass judgment on State legislators, State courts, and even the US Congress.

The theme is very prominent in the early history of the Court, where the Supreme Court fulfilled its Hamiltonian role as the final authority on the constitutionality of law. Very early, US Justices have proved that they were every bit the politicians as the Jurists - Chief Marshall successfully established Judicial Review in his Marbury vs. Madison decision, while Roger B Taney catastrophically endangered it in his attempt to end the political crisis of the Union via his Dred Scott Decision.

Later in the book, Schwartz still devotes time to the question of Judicial Review, but then in a new disguise - that of Judicial restraint, which Schwartz first sees in the actions of Roger B Taney, but which were only manifested plainly in the dissents of Oliver Wendell Holmes, most famously in the Lochner vs. New York case (1905), where the majority judges, led by Rufus W. Peckham, substituted its judgement to that of the legislative branch, and ruled a law restricting working hours unconstitutional (See Lochner v. New York: Economic Regulation on Trial). Under Judicial Restraint, the Supreme Court was only to overrule laws which no reasonable person could say were constitutional.

The other major theme in Schwartz's narrative is the switch from the primacy of property rights in the 19th century, to the supremacy of personal rights in the 20th. As the US came to allow much more government intervention in the economy, Schwartz argues, the rights of the private citizen, and especially the rights guaranteed in the bill of rights and the right of privacy had to be privileged. This tendency reached its climax in the Warren court, and particularly in the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. Surprisingly, though, the subsequent Burger court did not overthrow the trend. Rather, important personal rights rulings (such as Miranda) were affirmed, and even the right to abortion was guaranteed, as a right included within the right of privacy. The Rhenquist Court, though even more conservative then the Berger Court, has yet to turn the tables on Warren's revolution; indeed, the recent judgement against anti-Homosexual laws in Texas is another landmark civil rights decision.

Schwartz's book is interesting and thorough, but is not without flaws. The writing is somewhat crude, and Schwartz quotes other historians much too much. Schwartz has also an irritating tendency to use the same quote several times, and one quote from judge Frankfurter appears four times at least. The book also has the annoying tendency to assume all the readers are Americans.

Worse, sometimes Schwartz's scholarship is lacking. In the case of Dred Scott vs. Sandford, for example, Schwartz's makes no reference to the classic study by Don E. Fehernbacher (The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics), either in the text or in the bibliography. As a consequence, several of Schwartz's conclusion are somewhat distorted, and sometimes his views come out of the blue entirely. Thus Schwartz calls Stephen Douglas "the chief political victim of the Dred Scott Decision" [p.124] which is inaccurate and highly misleading. In the short run, Douglas's popularity in the South did not diminish after the Dred Scot decision, and when it did, it was due to his opposition to the Lecompton constitution - not to Dred Scott. In any event, Schwartz completely ignores the sectional split within the Democratic Party, a split that was indeed seemingly worsened by the Dred Scott decision, which abandoned ambiguity in favour of an endorsement of the Southern view.

Ultimately, Schwartz's book is both instructive and readable. If it is does not quite warrant a general endorsement, it is a good primer for those interested in American legal history.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Overview, September 4, 2003

By 

Kenneth G. Cavness (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A History of the Supreme Court (Paperback)

Supreme Court history books are ridiculously difficult to find. In part, it's because the Supreme Court is notoriously secretive about its inner workings; in part, it's because to outline a history of the Supreme Court is by necessity to cover law as it applies to the Constitution, which can be pretty dry stuff.

I was vigilant, however. And in Bernard Schwartz's 1993 _A History of the Supreme Court_, I found almost the perfect book for what I was looking for: a non-lawyer's history of the Supreme Court.

Schwartz begins with a quick history of judicial review, the founding principle of the Supreme Court. He also goes into some detail as to the Judiciary Acts and how they affected the Court over the years. I admit: I found this section dry. However, once Schwartz began covering the specific Justices (organized by era according to the Chief Justice that presided over time), things pick up, and I really began to feel like I was learning something useful.

Schwartz also covers four of what he considers to be "watershed" cases, and goes into some detail as to the reason why the cases were accepted, deliberations, and how each justice reacted in deciding the cases. The four cases -- Dred Scott v. Sandford, Lochner v. New York, Brown v. Board of Education, and Roe v. Wade -- are certainly landmark cases, and really provide a good deal of continuity from one era to the next of the Supreme Court.

I would have liked for Schwartz to have been slightly less even handed with his commentary; he acts as an apologist for both Taney and Burger, and I have little sympathy for the two men even after reading about them from a fairly sympathetic point of view. I would also have liked to have had slightly more biographical history on some judges, especially the ones that he tantalizingly mentions in a poor light, and then moves on after merely a sentence. Schwartz's book is remarkably optimistic for such a scholarly presentation.

Particularly, I enjoyed Schwartz's treatment of Holmes, Jackson, Frankfurter, and Warren; I would very much have liked to learn more about Hughes, Brennan, Douglas, Black, Harlan, and a host of other judges. However, I didn't purchase a copy of _A History of the Supreme Court Justices_, I purchased a copy of _A History of the Supreme Court_, and that's what Schwartz delivers.

Schartz's near-Panglossian view of the Court -- practically that each Chief Justice, save perhaps Vinson and White, were there at the precise time they were needed -- rankles a bit from time to time, but as a relatively quick, non-legal history of the Supreme Court, I can highly recommend this book.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for anyone interested in the Supreme Court, April 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A History of the Supreme Court (Paperback)

Prof. Schwartz' book is the best I have read on the subject to date, and as a Judge, I have a particular interest in the Supreme Court. Schwartz' writing flows, and his knowledge is second to none. I recommend this book to anyone even casually interested in the Supreme Court. He really brings this subject to life.