Amazon.com Review
Justice Byron White had a life that could fill
two biographies. As a young man, he was a national celebrity as a student athlete who excelled on both fronts. On the gridiron, he led Colorado to its first bowl game and finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting; in the classroom, he earned himself a Rhodes scholarship. But he put off going to Oxford to lead the National Football League in rushing, garnering a record salary along the way. He served in World War II in the Pacific, and returned to earn another degree from Yale Law and clerk for the Supreme Court. After a year in the Kennedy administration, he was appointed to the Supreme Court, where he served three decades.
White's reputation with the press as a Supreme Court justice suffered because, despite his personal pro-choice views and desire for privacy, he dissented in Roe v. Wade and, 13 years later, wrote the majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick, determining that "the Constitution does not confer a fundamental right upon homosexuals to engage in sodomy," even behind closed doors.
Hutchinson argues persuasively that these opinions were the result of a consistent judicial philosophy that refused to view the judiciary as a legislature. In his dissenting opinion in Roe v. Wade, for example, White wrote, "This issue, for the most part, should be left with the people and to the political processes the people have devised to govern their affairs." And in Bowers v. Hardwick, he commented, "The Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution."
Dennis Hutchinson, a former clerk for White and a University of Chicago Law professor, has written a smooth-reading biography of White, although it suffers from some gaps in coverage caused by his subject's passive lack of cooperation. Although clearly sympathetic to his subject, he writes in a neutral tone that provides a thorough overview of the justice's press coverage and Supreme Court work, helped in the latter by interviews with several dozen clerks (and, no doubt, Hutchinson's own experience). A remarkable book about a remarkable man. --Ted Frank
From Publishers Weekly
Justice Byron White, who retired from the Supreme Court in 1993, 31 years after his appointment by President Kennedy, remains a contentious figure. Liberal critics deride a plodding, reactionary, homophobic decision-maker who inadequately protected citizens from government intrusion into their private lives, reneged on support for affirmative action and wrote few memorable opinions. But in University of Chicago law professor Hutchinson's admiring, dry biography, WhiteARhodes scholar, college and pro football star (whence the nickname "Whizzer"), Colorado lawyer, decorated Navy veteranAwas a nonideological, self-effacing, principled public servant, a moving force on First Amendment libel and privacy issues. White, a publicity-shy ex-athlete who declined to be interviewed for this bio, even though Hutchinson once clerked for him, is best remembered for dissenting in 1973 on Roe v. Wade, not because he objected to abortion but because he believed there is no constitutional support for such a right. Hutchinson's closely argued, nuanced brief will appeal mostly to legal buffs.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
