Defending Constitutional Rights

Defending Constitutional Rights PDF

Author: Frank Minis Johnson

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9780820322858

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Federal Judge Frank M. Johnson of Alabama decided many of the most important civil rights and liberties cases in twentieth-century American history. During the 1950s and 1960s, his decisions supported Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights fighters in their struggles for justice and equality. Johnson extended the Constitutional defense of individual rights for women, students, prisoners, mental health patients, poor criminal defendants, and voters during his active judicial career in Alabama and the South, which lasted until 1991. This collection assembles some of Johnson's most thought-provoking and insightful essays, many of which explain and defend a number of his decisions. Also included in this volume is the first published transcript of a 1980 public television interview with Bill Moyers. Meticulously detailed and documented, yet accessible to a wide range of readers, this book explores the constitutional ideals that Johnson forged and defended as he persistently overcame public officials' resistance to constitutional rights and social change.

Defending Congress and the Constitution

Defending Congress and the Constitution PDF

Author: Louis Fisher

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780700617982

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The nation's most important and prolific constitutional scholar presents an articulate, passionate, and persuasive defense of Congress as an institution. The culmination of four decades of research and service, this book provides a lucid primer on our nation's government while advocating a robust reassertion of Congress's rightful role.

The People’s Lawyer

The People’s Lawyer PDF

Author: Albert Ruben

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2011-05

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 1583672389

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There is hardly a struggle aimed at upholding and extending therights embedded in the U.S. Constitution in which the Centerfor Constitutional Rights (CCR) has not played a central role,and yet few people have ever heard of it. Whether defendingthe rights of black people in the South, opponents of the war inVietnam and victims of torture worldwide, or fighting illegalactions of the U.S. government, the CCR has stood ready totake on all comers, regardless of their power and wealth. Whenthe United States declared that the Constitution did not applyto detainees at Guantanamo, the CCR waded fearlessly intobattle, its Legal Director declaring, “My job is to defend theConstitution from its enemies. Its main enemies right now arethe Justice Department and the White House.” In this first-ever comprehensive history of one of the most important legal organizations in the United States, the Center forConstitutional Rights, Albert Ruben shows us exactly what itmeans to defend the Constitution. He examines the innovativetactics of the CCR, the ways in which a radical organization isbuilt and nurtured, and the impact that the CCR has had onour very conception of the law. This book is a must-read notonly for lawyers, but for all the rest of us who may one day findour rights in jeopardy.

In Defense of the Constitution

In Defense of the Constitution PDF

Author: George Wescott Carey

Publisher:

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780865971387

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In Defense of the Constitution argues that modern disciples of Progressivism who subtly distort fundamental principles of the Constitution are determined to centralize political control in Washington, D.C., to achieve their goal of an egalitarian national society. It is in their distrust of self-government and representative institutions that Progressivists advocate, albeit indirectly, an elitist regime based on the power of the Supreme Court--or judicial supremacy. George W. Carey was Professor of Government at Georgetown University and editor of The Political Science Reviewer. Please note: This title is available as an ebook for purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes.

Rehabilitating Lochner

Rehabilitating Lochner PDF

Author: David E. Bernstein

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2011-05-01

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 0226043185

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In this timely reevaluation of an infamous Supreme Court decision, David E. Bernstein provides a compelling survey of the history and background of Lochner v. New York. This 1905 decision invalidated state laws limiting work hours and became the leading case contending that novel economic regulations were unconstitutional. Sure to be controversial, Rehabilitating Lochner argues that the decision was well grounded in precedent—and that modern constitutional jurisprudence owes at least as much to the limited-government ideas of Lochner proponents as to the more expansive vision of its Progressive opponents. Tracing the influence of this decision through subsequent battles over segregation laws, sex discrimination, civil liberties, and more, Rehabilitating Lochner argues not only that the court acted reasonably in Lochner, but that Lochner and like-minded cases have been widely misunderstood and unfairly maligned ever since.

In Defense of the United States Constitution

In Defense of the United States Constitution PDF

Author: Robert S. Singh

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-09-03

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1351117688

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Constitutional reform is a topic of perennial academic debate, perhaps now more than ever amid sharp polarization in the electorate and government. At once a cogent, new contribution to the scholarly literature and appropriate for American politics and government students, this book mounts a provocative, nonideological defense of the US Constitution, directly engaging proposals for reform and providing a rare systematic argument for continuity: Our politics may be broken but our system is not. Writing from an international perspective with an array of fascinating data, the author draws on theory, law, and history to defend the republican order under political stress and intellectual challenge.

Defending the Republic

Defending the Republic PDF

Author: Bruce Frohnen

Publisher: CUA Press

Published: 2022-10-07

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 1949822249

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In recent years, our constitutional order has increasingly come under attack as irredeemably undemocratic, racist, and oppressive. At the same time, it is increasingly obvious that politic practices in the United States have strayed very far from the founders’ designs and become deeply dysfunctional. The time is thus ripe for renewed reflection about the American political tradition. This volume reintroduces readers to the conservative tradition of political and constitutional discourse. It brings together prominent political scientists and legal scholars, all of whom were deeply influenced by the life and work of the eminent constitutional scholar George W. Carey. For over 40 years, Carey strove mightily to explain the nature and requirements of our political tradition. How it fostered meaningful, virtuous self-government, and how our constitutional tradition has been derailed by progressivist ideology. He is perhaps best known for his concept of “constitutional morality,” the understanding that our republican constitutional order can be sustained only by a combination of formal mechanisms (e.g., separation of powers) and unwritten norms (“standards of behavior”) that act to foster deliberation and consensus, as well as keep political actors within the boundaries of their constitutional offices. Contributors, including Francis Canavan, Claes G. Ryn, Paul Edward Gottfried, and Peter Augustine Lawler, discuss and develop Carey’s key insights, applying them to issues from the nature of majoritarian government to the purposes of constitutionalism to the decline of virtue that has accompanied the expansion of power among national and international elites. Each essay provides penetrating analysis of key aspects of our tradition, its inherent purposes, growth, and subsequent derailment, as well as the resources remaining within that tradition for the rebuilding of our constitutional order and a decent common life.

Defending the Constitution

Defending the Constitution PDF

Author: Alan Dershowitz

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2020-02-06

Total Pages: 109

ISBN-13: 1510761810

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“Maybe the question isn’t what happened to Alan Dershowitz. Maybe it’s what happened to everyone else.”—Politico In Defending the Constitution, Alan Dershowitz—New York Times bestselling author and one of America’s most respected legal scholars—makes an impassioned constitutional argument against the impeachment of President Donald Trump, just as he delivered it to the United States Senate. Alan Dershowitz has been called “one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America” by Politico and “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights” by Newsweek. Yet he has come under intense criticism fire for applying those same principles, and his famed “shoe‑on‑the‑other‑foot test,” to Donald Trump, especially after arguing on the president’s behalf before the U.S. Senate as it deliberated impeachment. Defending the Constitution seeks to refocus the debate over impeachment to the same standard that Dershowitz has upheld for decades: the law of the United States of America, as established by the Constitution. Citing legal examples from a long lineage of distinguished judges and attorneys, and examining the impeachment language in the Constitution itself, Dershowitz proves—first to the U.S. Senate, and now to readers everywhere—that President Trump should not have been impeached, and certainly should not be removed, for causes that do not meet the standards laid out by the founding fathers. This book is Alan Dershowitz’s argument for a return to nonpartisan judgment based on the Constitution, for a preservation of the separation of powers and the checks and balances that make American government great. It is essential reading for anyone interested in or concerned about the impeachment of President Trump, and for everyone who cares about the future of U.S. government and society.

How Constitutional Rights Matter

How Constitutional Rights Matter PDF

Author: Adam Chilton

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 0190871458

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Does constitutionalizing rights improve respect for those rights in practice? Drawing on statistical analyses, survey experiments, and case studies from around the world, this book argues that enforcing constitutional rights is not easy, but that some rights are harder to repress than others. First, enshrining rights in constitutions does not automatically ensure that those rights will be respected. For rights to matter, rights violations need to be politically costly. But this is difficult to accomplish for unconnected groups of citizens. Second, some rights are easier to enforce than others, especially those with natural constituencies that can mobilize for their enforcement. This is the case for rights that are practiced by and within organizations, such as the rights to religious freedom, to unionize, and to form political parties. Because religious groups, trade unions and parties are highly organized, they are well-equipped to use the constitution to resist rights violations. As a result, these rights are systematically associated with better practices. By contrast, rights that are practiced on an individual basis, such as free speech or the prohibition of torture, often lack natural constituencies to enforce them, which makes it easier for governments to violate these rights. Third, even highly organized groups armed with the constitution may not be able to stop governments dedicated to rights-repression. When constitutional rights are enforced by dedicated organizations, they are thus best understood as speed bumps that slow down attempts at repression. An important contribution to comparative constitutional law, this book provides a comprehensive picture of the spread of constitutional rights, and their enforcement, around the world.

Protecting Constitutional Freedoms

Protecting Constitutional Freedoms PDF

Author: Daan Braveman

Publisher: Praeger

Published: 1989-10-11

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13:

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According to Braveman, the federal courts are being systematically closed to individuals challenging the constitutionality of the conduct of state officials. Debate over the role of the federal court system in upholding constitutional rights is not new to readers of law journals and scholarly articles. Braveman now presents this crucial issue to the general public, who will find it of grave concern. His book brings together information that has previously been available only in separate articles. Beginning with an historical overview of the emergence of the federal courts as the guardian of constitutional rights, Braveman then focuses on specific cases and doctrines to illustrate a radical change in our judicial philosophy. His book brings together information that has previously been available only in separate articles.