Customer Reviews

The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions

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I found this work fantastically helpful in locating and reading the gist of all the important cases that the Supreme Court has decided. Just a little complaint, however: the index of cases, said to be complete, is not. Loewe v. Lawlor, described on p. 163, for instance, is not listed in the index of cases. Unfortunately, I also found a few other cases which, though treated in the book, are inexplicably missing from this index.

_The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions_ (Kermit Hall, ed.) is a decent reference source on Supreme Court cases. It contains a fair amount of basic info on the cases it covers, their historical background and how the decisions were reached. The entries in this book are by no means extensive, comprehensive or authoritative. Some of the cases were, disappointingly, covered in far too cursory a manner. I wanted to use this book as a side reference for a Con Law (Separation of Powers and Federalism) class in which I am currently enrolled. It has been of use for understanding some of the more densely written cases (i.e., the ones written by Rehnquist and O'Conner) but I was expecting a book which goes into more detail. Also, the double columns of type, dark colored paper and extremely small font size make reading anything inside somewhat of an unnecessary strain. However, I still recommend this book as a reference for the topic.

This book is perfect if you are interested in important decisions of the Supreme court but do not want to spend hours reading arguments, decisions and dissents in a civics book or findlaw. Oxford explains what happened in the case, why it is important and what the Supreme Court's decision did for American law.

It is small, well bound, and for the price of the paperback it is a valuable ancillary text or primary text for any person who is interested in the law or the history of Supreme court decisions. It even offers a glossary for law jargon, the American constitution and the succession of the justices of the Supreme court.

As a political scientist, I approached this book with a view towards understanding the social impetus and political environment surrounding a particular court decision. This is an excellent book for such an endeavor. It is probably too superficial for a legal companion but in terms of understanding the issues involved in a case, it is pretty good. Further, the overviews also cite some of the more important precedents cited by the court in a given decison as well as those decisions or statutes overturned in a case.

As an aside, it is interesting to see how decisions are made without the full court. Time and again you see the notation "Justices blank and blank not participating".

John C. McKee

The "Oxford Guide to US Supreme Court Decisions" is not much more than that. It gives an extremely expansive overview of all US Supreme Court cases that can remotely be considered important, throughout the period of its existence. Every case contains information on the reference number, the composition of the majority, concurrence and dissents, and a summary of what the case or controversy was about by a legal scholar.

The latter are sometimes a little problematic. Many cases are not given more than one or two paragraphs, and the index is incomplete. Some of the writers of the summaries also have a tendency to insinuate their own opinions on the cases into it, which goes particularly for those done by Kermit Hall himself, which are invariably positive about the most progressive justices and generally scathing about Scalia (though this is done in a 'read between the lines' manner, of course). An additional issue is that the index is incomplete, and the promised biographies of all Justices is no more than a list of their dates of nomination, appointment and death, which is rather disappointing.

Still overall, it's an essential reference book for looking up cases and the inclusion of related cases in the case summaries makes it much easier to trace precedent through the decades.

As a law student, I slogged away through case books, trying to understand what a particular Supreme Court decision was about. After seeing this book, I picked it up to see if it would help put the decisions in context for me so that I could better understand the details of each case.

By far, this book helped. For these important cases, the authors give you an idea of why the case was in the Supreme Court, some of the background history, the key elements of the decision, and in some cases, the effect of the decision. Not only did I understand how the case was decided, but I understand better about how the decision came about.

For any reader trying to understand more about the decisions that have shaped us as a nation, then I would highly recommend taking a look at this book. For law students, this is a quick refresher that will definitely prove helpful.

Kermit Hall, editor of the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, is also editor of this volume that looks specifically at the cases. This book does have an appendix with basic information such as lists of Justices, but for the most part, this book is really a compilation of short articles that deal with the major cases of the Supreme Court.

This guide contains hundreds of major cases that set important precedents for later courts, lower courts and society at large to follow. From early pivotal cases such as Marbury v. Madison, which set the precedent of judicial supremacy in Constitutional review, to the more recent cases such as Brown v. Board of Education (striking down 'separate but equal' arrangements), Miranda v. Arizona (setting up the popularly-known 'Miranda rights'), and Roe v. Wade. Unfortunately, this book was published before the monumental Bush v. Gore decision (Hall discusses this in his other Oxford Companion) - hopefully it will be included in a later edition. Each decision includes a description of the key issues, the opinion of the court, those who concur, significant dissents and attendant issues that might arise.

This text also includes insights into the significant personalities of the Supreme Court, facts and trivia about the Supreme Court, and more. However, these are interesting incidentals, not detracting from the primary purpose of the text, which is to show the decisions themselves.

The text includes an index of cases as well as an index of topics. This is a very useful text for those who need a quick, ready reference to the cases, particularly student of law, criminal justice, or political science.

This book is aimed at the legally proficient who needs a quick reference and for the lay legal reader who wants to gain knowledge.It is a must for the legal student who wants an introduction on constitutional law. The format makes it easy to read because it offers two ways for reading it: theme based for those doing some legal research on a given topic; alphabeticaly for those who use it as a reference. The section that includes the US constitution comes handy whenever you want to consult it as you read the cases.

Bought the '92 edition and updated to the '99 edition. Wish it'd come in a binder so I could incorporate updates as they become available. Better than any civics book. Eye-opening, mind-boggling and absolutely fascinating reading.

This is a handy reference to quickly correlate discussions of past decisions in the many articles on supreme court actions as well as during the confirmation process. It is a good book for every supreme court watcher to have on the shelf.