The Collapse of Constitutional Remedies [Hardcover]

InThe Collapse of Constitutional Remedies, Aziz Z. Huq examines what happens when our constitutional rights are violated. Many people think that federal courts will step in then and provide a remedy. But for most people, and especially for the vulnerable in our society, they won't lift a finger. As Huq argues, the powerful often get quicker access to the courts and more fulsome judicial review, which shows a break from the way in which the courts were originally designed. This book shows the deep ironies of judicial independence and charts a part of getting free of its most baleful effects.An exploration of how and why the Constitution's plan for independent courts has failed to protect individuals' constitutional rights, while advancing regressive and reactionary barriers to progressive regulation.Just recently, the Supreme Court rejected an argument by plaintiffs that police officers should no longer be protected by the doctrine of qualified immunity when they shoot or brutalize an innocent civilian. Qualified immunity is but one of several judicial inventions that shields state violence and thwarts the vindication of our rights. But aren't courts supposed to be protectors of individual rights? As Aziz Huq shows inThe Collapse of Constitutional Remedies, history reveals a much more tangled relationship between the Constitution's system of independent courts and the protection of constitutional rights.While doctrines such as qualified immunity may seem abstract, their real-world harms are anything but. A highway patrol officer stops a person's car in violation of the Fourth Amendment, violently yanked the person out and threw him to the ground, causing brain damage. A municipal agency fires a person for testifying in a legal proceeding involving her boss's family-and then laughed in her face when she demanded her job back. In all these cases, state defendants walked away with the most minor of penalties (if any at all). Ultilƒ.