Peter Irons - A People’s History of the Supreme Court

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Praise for A Peoples History of the Supreme Court

Following in the footsteps of Howard Zinns A Peoples History of the United States, Peter Irons tackles a most unlikely subjectthe branch of government most remote from popular awareness and influence. A Peoples History of the Supreme Court... brings alive the sweeping effects of seemingly remote, abstract judicial concerns... Irons offers a unique and inspiring view in which the deeply political nature of the Supreme Court is not a weakness unless we, the people, allow it to be.

The Denver Post

Well-written and interesting... Irons performs a valuable service by focusing attention on the biggest question in constitutional law: What is the proper role of the Supreme Court in American life.

Chicago Tribune

Irons shines. He goes beyond the bare text of the decisions, telling poignant stories from his research about the men and women whose rights were at stake in each case. Best of all, it is written in a style accessible not only to lawyers and history buffs but to all people with a stake in our constitution system.

Star-Ledger

Riveting... Highly readable... Unlike many books on the nations third branch of government, A Peoples History of the Supreme Court is a lively and provocative book.

Houston Chronicle

[Irons] breathes abundant life into old documents and reminds readers that todays fiercest arguments about rights are the continuation of the endless American conversation.

Publishers Weekly (starred)

Peter Ironss outstanding new book masterfully draws upon his dual perspectives as both a leading constitutional scholar and a pathbreaking civil liberties advocate. This exciting book vividly recounts the dramatic stories behind the Courts landmark cases and memorably portrays the colorful individuals who brought and decided them. Every American should read this superb history of the Supreme Court.

Nadine Strossen, President, American Civil Liberties Union and Professor of Law, New York Law School

This intriguing book about the Supreme Court is both concise and comprehensive. Peter Irons, a lawyer and historian, has written a book which should be read by any American who wants to understand how the Constitution and the rule of law have operated in the United States.

Robert F. Drinan, S.J., Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law School

The landmark decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court come alive again in legal scholar Peter Ironss first-rate peoples history. It is a riveting saga about constitutional democracy at work, filled with vivid narrative portraits of such illustrious Supreme court justices as John Marshall, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Thurgood Marshall. A truly indispensable book.

Douglas Brinkley, Director, Eisenhower Center for American Studies, University of New Orleans

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter Irons is a professor of political science emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, where he taught constitutional law from 1982 to 2004 and directed the Earl Warren Bill of Rights Project. A Harvard Law School graduate and civil liberties lawyer, he is a member of the Supreme Court bar. In the 1980s, he initiated the successful legal effort to vacate the criminal convictions of Fred Korematsu and Gordon Hirabayashi for violating World War II military orders that led to the internment of Japanese Americans. His previous books include Justice at War, The Courage of Their Convictions, May It Please the Court, and Jim Crows Children, all of which received Silver Gavel awards from the American Bar Association. His most recent book is God on Trial: Landmark Cases from Americas Religious Battlefields. He lives in Greenville, California.

Dedicated to my daughters,

Haley Ellen Fox and
Maya Grace IronFox

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:

80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin,
a member of Penguin Putnam Inc. 1999
Published in Penguin Books 2000
This revised edition published 2006

9 10

Copyright Peter Irons, 1999, 2006 Foreword copyright Howard Zinn, 1999 All rights reserved

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Irons, Peter H., 1940
A peoples history of the Supreme Court : the men and women whose cases and decisions have shaped our
Constitution / Peter Irons.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 9781101503133

1. United States. Supreme CourtHistory. 2. Constitutional lawUnited States.
3. Law and politics. I. Title.
KF8742.I766 2006
347.732609dc22 2006044779

The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated.

http://us.penguingroup.com

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FOREWORD

Although the Preamble to the United States Constitution begins with the words We the People... , the volumes upon volumes that deal with constitutional law are remarkably devoid of human beings. How many Americans, of the huge number who have heard of Brown v. Board of Education, know that Brown refers to Oliver Brown and his eight-year-old daughter Linda in Topeka, or know anything about the long struggle of their family to bring the case before the highest court in the land?

How many, even if they have studied constitutional law and argued the case of Tinker v. Des Moines, know (unless they have read Peter Ironss wonderful book The Courage of Their Convictions) the human story of Mary Beth Tinker, the thirteen-year-old suspended from school in 1965 for wearing a black armband in school to protest the war in Vietnam?

It is this situation that Peter Irons has set out to remedy, with a history of the Supreme Court that breathes life into the dry language of the judicial system, that looks behind the cases to the human beings crucial to the cases but long forgotten, that examines the realities of social conflict beneath the surface of legal argument.

The document created by the Founding Fathers was born of intense conflicts of race and class, yet there has always been a certain aura of disinterestedness around the decisions of the Supreme Court, notwithstanding the adversarial character of the cases before it.

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