Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

Several of the most divisive moral conflicts that have beset Americans in the period since World War II have been transmuted into constitutional conflicts and resolved as such. In his new book, eminent legal scholar Michael Perry evaluates the grave charge that the modern Supreme Court has engineered a "judicial usurpation of politics." In particular, Perry inquires which of several major Fourteenth Amendment conflicts--over race segregation, race-based affirmative action, sex-based discrimination, homosexuality, abortion, and physician-assisted suicide--have been resolved as they should have been. He lays the necessary groundwork for his inquiry by addressing questions of both constitutional theory and constitutional history. A clear-eyed examination of some of the perennial controversies in American life, We the People is a major contribution to modern constitutional studies.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• 1. Introduction: "The Judicial Usurpation of Politics"(p. 3)
• 2. What Is "the Constitution"? (And Other Fundamental Questions)(p. 15)
• 3. The Fourteenth Amendment: What Norms Did "We the People" Establish?(p. 48)
• 4. The Fourteenth Amendment and Race: Segregation and Affirmative Action(p. 88)
• 5. Beyond Race: Sex and Sexual Orientation(p. 117)
• 6. Further Beyond: Abortion and Physician-Assisted Suicide(p. 151)
• 7. Concluding Reflections(p. 180)
• Notes(p. 187)
• Index(p. 259)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

"The Supreme Court has illegitimately usurped political power in the US." Or so claim political conservatives who contend that the Court is making decisions best left to the states and other branches of the government. Perry (law, Wake Forest Univ.) responds to these critics, arguing that in the area of discrimination against racial minorities, women, and gays, the Fourteenth Amendment gives Congress broad authority to act. However, in the case of abortion, and if the Court were to recognize a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, he believes that the Court is exceeding its authority. We the People develops a detailed, occasionally tortured, but highly intelligent reading of the Constitution and how to interpret it and its amendments. Based on his reading of the Fourteenth Amendment, Perry claims that the Reconstructionists created a political norm endorsing congressional authority to eradicate all forms of discrimination. This "anti-discrimination norm" supports civil rights protection for many groups, yet efforts to create abortion and physician-assisted suicide rights are illegitimate. The book concludes that conservatives are partially correct in their claims of judicial usurpation. An excellent complement to law, Civil War, and constitutional interpretation collections for upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and professionals. D. Schultz; Hamline University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Michael J. Perry holds the University Distinguished Chair in Law at Wake Forest University. From 1982 to 1997 he taught at the Northwestern University School of Law, where he held the Howard J. Trienens Chair in Law. Perry is the author of several books, including The Idea of Human Rights: Four Inquiries (Oxford, 1998), Religion in Politics: Constitutional and Moral Perspectives (Oxford, 1997), The Constitution in the Courts: Law or Politics? (Oxford, 1994), and Love and Power: The Role of Religion and Morality in American Politics (Oxford, 1991).