The conservative majority that has dominated the Supreme Court for over a decade was engineered by presidents who claimed to have depoliticized the courts and promoted judicial restraint. Yet the result has been a steady stream of opinions that limit individual rights far more than is commonly understood. In With Liberty and Justice for Some, David Kairys presents a fascinating analysis of the changes brought about by the Reagan-Bush courts, changes that will long outlive those administrations.
David Kairys is a professor of constitutional law at Temple Law School, a leading civil rights lawyer, and an author of books and commentary on a range of issues. His latest book - Philadelphia Freedom, Memoir of a Civil Rights Lawyer - has received wide acclaim.
Cornel West, Princeton professor and author or Race Matters, says on the back cover of the book: "David Kairys is one of the grand long-distance runners in the struggle for justice in America. His brilliant legal mind and superb lawyerly skills are legendary. This marvelous book is his gift to us!"
Professor Kairys' other books include the leading progressive critique of the law, The Politics of Law (editor and co-author), and With Liberty and Justice for Some.
As a civil rights lawyer, he won the leading race discrimination case against the FBI, won challenges to unrepresentative juries around the country, stopped police sweeps of minority neighborhoods in Philadelphia, and represented Dr. Benjamin Spock in a free speech case before the Supreme Court. In 1971 he co-founded a small civil rights law firm, now Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing & Feinberg. In 1996 he conceived the lawsuits brought by over 40 cities against handgun manufacturers, and his public-nuisance theory has become the major basis for a range of challenges to corporate practices that endanger public health or safety.
