The Return of George Sutherland [Hardcover]

Hadley Arkes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 1994

This treatise seeks to restore the jurisprudence of the late Justice of the US Supreme Court George Sutherland - a jurisprudence anchored in the understanding of natural rights. The doctrine of natural rights has become controversial at the present time, while Sutherland has been widely maligned and screened from historical memory. He is remembered today as one of the "four horsemen" who resisted Roosevelt and the New Deal; but his leadership in the cause of voting rights for women has been forgotten. Both liberal and conservative jurists now deride Sutherland, yet both groups continue to draw upon his writings. Liberals took to Sutherland for a jurisprudence that protected "privacy" against the rule of majorities, as in matters concerning abortion or gay rights. However, both liberals and conservatives deny the premises of natural rights that provided the ground, and coherence, of Sutherland's teaching. The author of this study contends that Sutherland can supply what is missing in both conservative and liberal jurisprudence.

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

Clearly and cogently and even dramatically done.... Hadley Arkes leads us into the deepest jungles of constitutional thought.... His is a stimulating safari. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From The New Yorker

Arkes's work is a welcome addition to this emerging body of constitutional thought. If given the attention it deserves, it may well fulfill both objectives embodied in its title. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr; First Edition edition (August 8, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691034729
• ISBN-13: 978-0691034720
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,215,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A near-masterpiece of revisionist constitutional history, June 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Return of George Sutherland (Paperback)

Despite the fact that constitutional historians rank George Sutherland among the 'near-greats" of the Supreme Court, the first-and only -Supreme Court Justice from Utah has been largely forgotten. If he is remembered at all, he it is only as the most able of that notorious reactionary quartet, the "Four Horsemen"-Sutherland, Van Devanter, Butler, and McReynolds- who stuggled in vain to overturn The New Deal.This is a pity, and not only because to be remembered as the most able of the Four Horsemen is akin to being remembered as the most able Italian General of World War Two. Sutherland was no blind reactionary ( And, to be fair, neither was the technically brilliant, but inarticulate Van Devanter), but a creative, often insightful jurist, whose contributions to legal theory still affect our lives today. Almost all of Modern zoning law, for example, comes from his decision in Euclid vs.Ambler, while His eloquent opinion in Powell vs.Alabama ( the 'Scottsboro Boys'case)helped to blaze the trail for the modern understanding of fair trials. Also, his opinions in U.S. vs. Curtis-Wright amnd Humphreys executor contributed much to our understanding of the scope and limits of Presidential power. If Arkes' book were merely an reminder of George Sutherlands many contributions to Constitutional law, it would be welcome. However, it is more than that, much more. The only previous scholarly study of Sutherland and his career, Douglas Paschal's A Man Versus the State, while largely sympathetic, had cast the Justice as an a disciple of Herbert Spencer and John Stuart Mill-a libertarian Social Darwinist. It is both the genius and the flaw of Hadley Arkes'brilliant, stimulating book to argue instead that Sutherland stood firmly in the tradition of Natural rights and natural Law, a tradition which , while it might be widely misunderstood ( witness, for example, the splenetic, nearly illiterate assaults on Clarence Thomas), still has an important part to play in constitutional thought. Arlkes book argues for this understanding, and for the continuing importance of Sutherland's thought, with clarity, wit and learning.It is a very fine book. Why, then do I call it only a 'near-masterpiece' and speak of it as 'flawed'.Two reasons. First, Arkes, for all his intelligence, has an excessively mechanical, rationalistic and eighteenth century view of the Natural Law.This reader prefers a more Thomistic-and, dare I say it, somewhat more liberal- approach, in which charity plays as imporatant a role as reason.Secondly, for all the insight the book offers into Sutherlands thought, it also tends to platy down some of the more unpleasant aspects ohf his jurisprudence. Why, for instance, did this champion of natural rights join Holmes in that justices worst decision, Buck vs.Bell? Is it not possible, that, for all the influence of Burlamaqui,Herbert Spencers social Darwinism also played arole in Sutherlands thought? To conclude this review on a somewhat more positive note, I will say that it is one of the most intelligent and stimulating studies of asupreme Court justice, and of the American Constitution , to appear in recent years. One can only hope that it will be followed by studies ,in the same vein , of other Justices committed to the Natural Law, such as Story, the first Harlan, and Murphy.One also hopes that the energetic Professor Arkes will edit a collection of Sutrtherlands opinions, papers, and correspondence. It might provide furthur insight into this very able 'forgotten ' justice.