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The Most Democratic Branch - How the Courts Serve America (Hardcover)
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The Most Democratic Branch - How the Courts Serve America (Hardcover)
Series: Institutions of American Democracy
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Many critics attack federal judges as anti-democratic elitists,
activists out of step with the mainstream of American thought. But
others argue that judges should stand alone as the ultimate
guardians of American values, placing principle before the views of
the people. In The Most Democratic Branch, Jeffrey Rosen disagrees
with both assertions. Contrary to what interest groups may claim,
he contends that, from the days of John Marshall right up to the
present, the federal courts by and large have reflected the
opinions of the mainstream. More important, he argues that the
Supreme Court is most successful when it defers to the
constitutional views of the American people, as represented most
notably by Congress and the Presidency. And on the rare occasion
when they departed from the consensus, the result has often been a
disaster. To illustrate, Rosen provides a penetrating look at some
of the most important Supreme Court cases in American history-cases
involving racial equality, affirmative action, abortion, gay rights
and gay marriage, the right to die, electoral disputes, and civil
liberties in wartime. Rosen shows that the most notorious
constitutional decisions in American history-the ones that have
been most strenuously criticized, such as Dred Scott or Roe v.
Wade-have gone against mainstream opinion. By contrast, the most
successful decisions-from Marbury v. Madison to Brown v. Board of
Education-have avoided imposing constitutional principles over the
wishes of the people. Rosen concludes that the judiciary works best
when it identifies the constitutional principles accepted by a
majority of Americans, and enforces them unequivocally as
fundamental law. Jeffrey Rosen is one of the most respected legal
experts writing today, a regular contributor to The New York Times
Magazine and the Legal Affairs Editor of The New Republic. The
provocative arguments that he puts forth here are bound to fuel
heated debate at a time when the federal judiciary is already the
focus of fierce criticism.
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