Nixon's Court

Nixon's Court PDF

Author: Kevin J. McMahon

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2011-09-19

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 0226561216

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Most analysts have deemed Richard Nixon’s challenge to the judicial liberalism of the Warren Supreme Court a failure—“a counterrevolution that wasn’t.” Nixon’s Court offers an alternative assessment. Kevin J. McMahon reveals a Nixon whose public rhetoric was more conservative than his administration’s actions and whose policy towards the Court was more subtle than previously recognized. Viewing Nixon’s judicial strategy as part political and part legal, McMahon argues that Nixon succeeded substantially on both counts. Many of the issues dear to social conservatives, such as abortion and school prayer, were not nearly as important to Nixon. Consequently, his nominations for the Supreme Court were chosen primarily to advance his “law and order” and school desegregation agendas—agendas the Court eventually endorsed. But there were also political motivations to Nixon’s approach: he wanted his judicial policy to be conservative enough to attract white southerners and northern white ethnics disgruntled with the Democratic party but not so conservative as to drive away moderates in his own party. In essence, then, he used his criticisms of the Court to speak to members of his “Silent Majority” in hopes of disrupting the long-dominant New Deal Democratic coalition. For McMahon, Nixon’s judicial strategy succeeded not only in shaping the course of constitutional law in the areas he most desired but also in laying the foundation of an electoral alliance that would dominate presidential politics for a generation.

The Coming of the Nixon Court

The Coming of the Nixon Court PDF

Author: Earl M. Maltz

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2016-08-13

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 0700622780

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Beginning with Brown v. Board of Education and continuing with a series of decisions that, among other things, expanded the reach of the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court that Richard Nixon inherited had presided over a progressive revolution in the law. But by 1972 Nixon had managed to replace four members of the so-called Warren Court with justices more aligned with his own law-and-order conservatism. Nixon's appointees—Warren Burger as Chief Justice and Harry Blackmun, Lewis Powell, and William Rehnquist as associate justices—created a politically diverse bench, one that included not only committed progressives and conservatives, but also justices with a wide variety of more moderate views. The addition of the Nixon justices dramatically changed the trajectory of American constitutional jurisprudence with ramifications continuing to this day. This book is an account of the actions of the "Nixon Court" during the 1972 term—a term during which one of the most politically diverse benches of the era would confront a remarkably broad array of issues with major implications for the future of constitutional law. By looking at the term's cases—most notably Roe v. Wade, but also those addressing school desegregation, criminal procedure, obscenity, the rights of the poor, gender discrimination, and aid to parochial schools—Earl Maltz offers a detailed picture of the unique interactions behind each decision. His book provides the reader with a rare close-up view of the complexity of the forces that shape the responses of a politically diverse Court to ideologically divisive issues—responses that, taken together, would shape the evolution of constitutional doctrine for decades to come.

The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right

The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right PDF

Author: Michael J. Graetz

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2017-06-06

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 1476732515

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The magnitude of the Burger Court has been underestimated by historians. When Richard Nixon ran for president in 1968, "Impeach Earl Warren" billboards dotted the landscape, especially in the South. Nixon promised to transform the Supreme Court--and with four appointments, including a new chief justice, he did. This book tells the story of the Supreme Court that came in between the liberal Warren Court and the conservative Rehnquist and Roberts Courts: the seventeen years, 1969 to 1986, under Chief Justice Warren Burger. It is a period largely written off as a transitional era at the Supreme Court when, according to the common verdict, "nothing happened." How wrong that judgment is. The Burger Court had vitally important choices to make: whether to push school desegregation across district lines; how to respond to the sexual revolution and its new demands for women's equality; whether to validate affirmative action on campuses and in the workplace; whether to shift the balance of criminal law back toward the police and prosecutors; what the First Amendment says about limits on money in politics. The Burger Court forced a president out of office while at the same time enhancing presidential power. It created a legacy that in many ways continues to shape how we live today. Written with a keen sense of history and expert use of the justices' personal papers, this book sheds new light on an important era in American political and legal history.--Adapted from dust jacket.

The Rehnquist Choice

The Rehnquist Choice PDF

Author: John W. Dean

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2002-02-01

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 0743229797

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The explosive, never-before-revealed story of how William Rehnquist became a Supreme Court Justice, told by the man responsible for his candidacy.

Richard Nixon's Court

Richard Nixon's Court PDF

Author: George D. Cameron III

Publisher: Van Rye Publishing, LLC

Published: 2024-09-02

Total Pages: 1077

ISBN-13: 1957906154

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The main themes of this second book in The Age of Nixon Series are that President Nixon well understood the importance of the Supreme Court and that his efforts to change the Court’s policy preferences were more successful than has been generally realized. More specifically, Nixon recognized the policy “problem,” he made a determined effort to change what he could during his presidency, and his efforts were merely the opening salvo in what has become a decades-long process to “remake” the Court. This book lets the twenty-nine Justices speak for themselves, via their votes in actual cases. Those votes are the book’s main data-points. The cases that appear in this book are by no means all of the cases the Supreme Court has decided on the eleven topics addressed within: Federalism, Interstate Commerce, Right to Counsel, Keep and Bear Arms, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, Property Rights, Voting Rights, Education Rights, Employee Rights, and Competition Rights. Rather, the book’s primary focus is a comparison of the post-1968 voting patterns of the five Warren Court “holdover” justices and President Nixon’s (and later) replacement justices—as well as comparisons between and among the various replacement justices. This book’s author, Professor George D. Cameron III, taught Law for forty-three years at what is now the Ross Business School at the University of Michigan. Many of the cases included in this book are “old friends” of his that he used in the classroom and in his three Business Law textbooks. The book is also enriched by the additional perspectives derived from the author’s advanced studies in Political Science at Michigan and at Kent State University. He is thus able to assemble a sizable body of relevant data and then utilize it to provide unique insights into the remaking of the Supreme Court—a process begun by President Nixon.

United States V. Nixon

United States V. Nixon PDF

Author: Larry A. Van Meter

Publisher: Infobase Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 1438103433

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A presidential scandal that rocked the country resulted in this landmark Supreme Court case on the issue of executive power. When it was discovered that President Richard Nixon kept audio tapes of all conversations conducted in the Oval Office, prosecutors subpoenaed those tapes to prove that the President and his aides were abusing their power. United States v. Nixon is the stunning account of how Nixon's unwillingness to comply eventually led to the involvement of the Supreme Court, who unanimously decided that the president of the United States does not have absolute power. This volume's expert writing and robust design capture the tense atmosphere surrounding this historic decision, which eventually led to Nixon's resignation in August 1974.

United States V. Nixon

United States V. Nixon PDF

Author: D. J. Herda

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 9780894907531

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Is the president of the United States exempt from criminal investigation? Is he above the law? Presented in a lively, thought provoking overview, this book investigates the events surrounding President Richard M. Nixon and the Watergate case and the impact the decision would have on America's future. Author D.J. Herda examines the ideas and the arguments of the people behind this landmark case.