Showing titles in Judicial Systems

Over the last 30 years, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies has grown from a small group of disaffected conservative law students into an organization with extraordinary influence over American law and politics. Although the organization is unknown to the average citizen, this group of intellectuals has managed to monopolize the selection of federal judges, take over the Department of Justice, and control legal policy in the White House.

In 1981, after almost two centuries of exclusively male appointments, Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female Supreme Court Justice of the United States, a significant historical moment and a symbolic triumph for supporters of women's rights. Most do not know, however, about the remarkable women shortlisted for the Supreme Court in the decades before O'Connor's success. Since the 1930s, nine women were formally considered for a seat on the Supreme Court, but were ultimately passed over. Shortlisted gives them the recognition they deserve.

Engaging but caustic and openly ideological, Antonin Scalia was among the most influential justices ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court. In this fascinating new book, legal scholar Richard L. Hasen assesses Scalia's complex legacy as a conservative legal thinker and disruptive public intellectual. The left saw Scalia as an unscrupulous foe who amplified his judicial role with scathing dissents and outrageous public comments.

When Richard Nixon campaigned for the presidency in 1968, he promised to change the Supreme Court. With four appointments to the court, including Warren E. Burger as the chief justice, he did just that. In 1969 the Burger Court succeeded the famously liberal Warren Court, which had significantly expanded civil liberties and was despised by conservatives across the country.

On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court released two interlocked abortion decisions overturning the laws of all the individual states. Only one of the decisions, Roe v. Wade, tends to get much media attention, and it is popularly said that it grants a "woman's right to choose". But Justice Blackmun is in several places very adamant: Though it had been explicitly sought, he was not granting to women the "right to choose". In Doe v. Bolton, the second and often unexamined companion decision, Blackmun is explicit. The right he is granting is to the doctor.

Almost every society has professional judges, but from ancient Athens to modern Asia, cultures have wanted ordinary people involved in legal decisions. The use of juries comes with challenges; societies must determine how to select jurors, what cases jurors should decide and by what rules, and how to inform jurors about the law and evidence. This Very Short Introduction shows how and why societies around the world have used juries, charting the spread of the twelve-person jury from England to the British colonies in America, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean.

The Justices Behind Roe V. Wade offers a front-row seat to the inner workings of the Supreme Court that led to the monumental Roe v. Wade decision. Spanning from 1969 to 1972, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Bob Woodward and coauthor Scott Armstrong report on the masterful maneuvering and politicking that affected the court’s decisions and created obstacles for the landmark ruling. Abridged from the number-one best seller The Brethren, this is an exquisite work of reporting on one of the most important rulings of the United States.

What if an angel hadn't stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac? What does Genesis seem to be telling us about taking revenge? Or what is it saying about capital punishment? Drawing on biblical commentary from throughout the ages, Alan Dershowitz shines a brilliant legal light on the stories that comprise the foundation of our society.

Is examining the recent rise of wagering betting gambling in America. What changed to make it legal and the history of underground gambling operations through history.

Seven minutes after President Obama put his signature to a landmark national health care insurance program, a lawyer in the office of Florida GOP attorney general Bill McCollum hit a computer key, sparking a legal challenge to the new law that would eventually reach the nation’s highest court. Health care is only the most visible and recent front in a battle over the meaning and scope of the U.S. Constitution. The battleground is the Supreme Court, and one of the most skilled, insightful, and trenchant of its observers takes us close up to watch it in action.

Jailhouse snitches are rarely prisoners who happen to overhear confessions. Inmates apply for the job and they become part of a roster of covert operatives whose surveillance on behalf of law enforcement has put the Orange County, Calif., justice system at the center of a national debate.

In Material Law, distinguished scholar John Brigham focuses on the places where law and material life intersect, and how law creates and alters our social reality. Brigham looks at an eclectic group of bodies and things - from maps and territories and trends in courthouse architecture to a woman's womb and a judge's body - to make connections between the material and the legal.

When two parties meet in court, the outcome is rarely preordained. Judges must figure out who wins and who loses by analyzing the facts of the case before them and applying the legal principles of cases that have come before. How Would You Rule? brings that experience alive by presenting you with the critical facts and rules in 31 of the law's most interesting cases and inviting you to test your legal wits and sharpen your legal judgment by figuring out how these challenging cases should be decided.

Having lost everything, I leave memories of a London police cell behind me and head for Spain, with its promise of adventure and fun. Little do I know I'm about to be thrust into the most terrifying time of my life.

How can you keep your faith in people after seeing the flaws of the American justice system? Juror #11 exposes the flaws and weaknesses in the American justice system from the perspective of a murder trial juror who endured months of trauma, the threat of jail, and thousands of dollars in fines and legal fees because of them.

For two hundred years, the constitutionality of capital punishment had been axiomatic. But in 1962, Justice Arthur Goldberg and his clerk Alan Dershowitz dared to suggest otherwise, launching an underfunded band of civil rights attorneys on a quixotic crusade. In 1972, in a most unlikely victory, the Supreme Court struck down Georgia’s death penalty law in Furman v. Georgia.

One promise of democracy is the right of every citizen to vote. And yet, from our founding, strong political forces were determined to limit that right. The Supreme Court, Alexander Hamilton wrote, would protect the weak against this very sort of tyranny. Still, as On Account of Race forcefully demonstrates, through the better part of American history the Court has instead been a protector of white rule. And complex threats against the right to vote persist even today.

In 1945, Erle Stanley Gardner, noted attorney and author of the popular Perry Mason mysteries, was contacted by an overwhelmed California public defender who believed his doomed client was innocent. William Marvin Lindley had been convicted of the rape and murder of a young girl along the banks of the Yuba River, and was awaiting execution at San Quentin. After reviewing the case, Gardner agreed to help - it seemed the fate of the "Red-Headed Killer" hinged on the testimony of a colorblind witness.

After decades of activism, legal battles, and debate, listen to the landmark decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Hear the Dobbs v. Jackson opinion and dissents in their entirety, as well as the original Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey opinions, with an introduction by Faye Wattleton, the first African American woman elected president of Planned Parenthood.

Walter Frank tackles, in a comprehensive but lively manner, subjects rarely treated in one volume. Aiming at both the general listener and students of political science, law, or history, Frank begins with a brief discussion of the nature of constitutional law and why the Court divides so closely on many issues. He then proceeds to an analysis of the Constitution and subsequent amendments, placing them in their historical context.