Democracy and Equality: The Enduring Constitutional Vision of the Warren Court [Hardcover]

InDemocracy and Equality, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of the Warren Court, the eminent legal scholars Geoffrey R. Stone and David A. Strauss demonstrate that the jurisprudence of the Warren Court represented a high point in the history of constitutional interpretation, and that the Warren Court's approach to the Constitution was principled and consistent with the core values of our Constitution and the fundamental responsibilities of our judiciary. Despite almost sixty-five years of unwarranted attacks by conservatives, the contributions of the Warren Court to our nation's commitments to democracy and equality remain unmatched in the history of the Supreme Court.From 1953 to 1969, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren brought about many of the proudest achievements of American constitutional law. The Warren declared racial segregation and laws forbidding interracial marriage to be unconstitutional; it expanded the right of citizens to criticize public officials; it held school prayer unconstitutional; and it ruled that people accused of a crime must be given a lawyer even if they can't afford one. Yet, despite those and other achievements, conservative critics have fiercely accused the justices of the Warren Court of abusing their authority by supposedly imposing their own opinions on the nation.As the eminent legal scholars Geoffrey R. Stone and David A. Strauss demonstrate inDemocracy and Equality, the Warren Court's approach to the Constitution was consistent with the most basic values of our Constitution and with the most fundamental responsibilities of our judiciary. Stone and Strauss describe the Warren Court's extraordinary achievements by reviewing its jurisprudence across a range of issues addressing our nation's commitment to the values of democracy and equality. In each chapter, they tell the story of a critical decision, exploring the historical and legal context of each case, the Court's reasoning, alS2