We the People The Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court [Paperback]

Several of the most divisive moral conflicts that have beset Americans in the period since World War II have been transmuted into constitutional conflicts and resolved as such. In his new book, eminent legal scholar Michael Perry evaluates the grave charge that the modern Supreme Court has engineered a judicial usurpation of politics. In particular, Perry inquires which of several major Fourteenth Amendment conflicts--over race segregation, race-based affirmative action, sex-based discrimination, homosexuality, abortion, and physician-assisted suicide--have been resolved as they should have been. He lays the necessary groundwork for his inquiry by addressing questions of both constitutional theory and constitutional history. A clear-eyed examination of some of the perennial controversies in American life,We the Peopleis a major contribution to modern constitutional studies.

Preface
1. Introduction: The Judicial Usurpation of Politics
2. What is the Constitution (And Other Fundamental Questions)
3. The Fourteenth Amendment: What Norms Did We the People Establish?
4. The Fourteenth Amendment and Race: Segregation and Affirmative Action
5. Beyond Race: Sex and Sexual Orientation
6. Further Beyond: Abortion and Physician-Assisted Suicide
7. Concluding Reflections

Perry has written an ambitious, thoughtful, and provocative book that combines theoretical analysis of interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment with nuanced discussions of several specific constitutional cases. It is a worthy addition to the large and diverse scholarly literature on the Fourteenth Amendment.--Perspectives on Politics Science

We the Peopledevelops a detailed....highly intelligent reading of the Constitution and how to interpret it and its amendments....An excellent complement to law, Civil War, and constitutional interpretation collections for upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and professilS*