Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Illustrations(p. ix)
• Tables, Charts, and Graphs(p. xi)
• Preface(p. xiii)
• Acknowledgments(p. xvii)
• 1 A Struggle for Power(p. 1)
• Abortion, the Court, and American Politics
• No Longer "the Least Dangerous" Branch
• 2 The Cult of the Robe(p. 32)
• The Myth of Merit
• Process of Appointment
• Political Trade-offs
• Packing the Court
• Betrayed by Justice
• Off-the-Bench Activities
• Independence and Accountability
• 3 Life in the Marble Temple(p. 105)
• Before the Marble Temple
• In the Marble Temple
• Justice and Company--Nine Little Law Firms
• Administrative Staff and Political Struggles
• Managing the Caseload
• 4 Deciding What to Decide(p. 164)
• Access to Justice
• Setting the Agenda
• Agenda for Policy-making--Who Benefits, Who Loses?
• Review Denied, Justice Denied?
• 5 Deciding Cases and Writing Opinions(p. 234)
• The Role of Oral Argument
• Conference on Merits
• Opinion-Writing Process
• The Value of Judicial Opinions
• Institutional and Individual Opinions
• 6 The Court and American Life(p. 313)
• Opinion Days
• Communicating Decisions to the Media
• Implementing Rulings and Achieving Compliance
• The Supreme Court and American Life
• Appendix Members of the Supreme Court of the United States(p. 371)
• Notes(p. 375)
• Glossary(p. 415)
• Selected Further Readings(p. 421)
• Index(p. 425)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Library Journal Review

With the abortion and school desegregation decisions, O'Brien contends, the Supreme Court has ceased to be Hamilton's ``least dangerous branch.'' Increasingly activist, it has in fact become a ``storm center'' of national politics. Ever mindful of our judicial past, O'Brien likewise finds the Court is markedly more bureaucratic. His lucid text describes the inner rules and procedures the cost of filings, screening procedures, certiorari petitions, the justices' give-and-take negotiations, their tentative votes and maneuverings, the oral arguments, the growing number of dissents and plurality opinions. O'Brien finds the Court rife with heated personal clashes. Rather than above the battle, it is highly sensitive to external pressures, from the President, Congress, public opinion. This is an illuminating, first-rate primer for those seeking to understand the workings of the Court. Milton Cantor, History Dept., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

As the author of many highly regarded books and articles on the federal judiciary and on judicial policy-making, O'Brien is well qualified to write this text on the role of the Supreme Court in American politics. The book explores such questions as the process of appointing justices to the High Court, how the justices manage their staffs and caseloads, the internal workings of the Court, and how the Court chooses to communicate decisions to the public. O'Brien makes excellent use of interviews with the current justices and the private working papers of past and present members of the Court. The writing style is compelling and easy to follow, somewhere between the journalistic mode of Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong's The Brethren (1979) and the drier, academic approach of David Rohde and Harold Spaeth's Supreme Court Decision Making (CH, Jul '76). For students and general readers.-R.A. Carp, University of Houston

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

David Michael O'Brien was born in Rock Springs, Wyoming on August 30, 1951. He received a bachelor's degree in political science and philosophy, a master's degree in political science, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He taught politics at the University of Puget Sound and served briefly as chairman of its politics department. He joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1979 and taught politics there for almost four decades. He wrote, co-wrote, or edited more than a dozen books. His book, Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics, won the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award. He died of lung cancer on December 20, 2018 at the age of 67.

(Bowker Author Biography)