A brilliant new approach to the Constitution and courts of the United States by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.For Justice Breyer, the Constitution s primary role is to preserve and encouragewhat he calls active liberty : citizen participation in shaping government and its laws. As this book argues, promoting active liberty requires judicial modesty and deference to Congress; it also means recognizing the changing needs and demands of the populace. Indeed, the Constitution s lasting brilliance is that its principles may be adapted to cope with unanticipated situations, and Breyer makes a powerful case against treating it as a static guide intended for a world that is dead and gone. Using contemporary examples from federalism to privacy to affirmative action, this is a vital contribution to the ongoing debate over the role and power of our courts.

In this updated and expanded edition of The Tyranny of GoodIntentions , Paul Craig Roberts and Lawrence M. Stratton renewtheir valiant campaign to reclaim that which is rightlyours–liberty protected by the rule of law. They show how crusadinglegislators and unfair prosecutors are remaking American law into aweapon wielded by the government and how the erosion of the legalprinciples we hold dear–such as habeas corpus and the prohibitionagainst self-incrimination–is destroying the presumption ofinnocence. A new introduction and new chapters cover recent marqueecases and make this provocative book essential reading for anyonewho cringes at the thought of unbridled state power and sees ourcivil liberties slowly slipping away in the name of the War onDrugs, the War on Crime, and the War on Terror.

For the first time, a collection of dissents from the mostfamous Supreme Court cases If American history can truly be traced through the majoritydecisions in landmark Supreme Court cases, then what about thedissenting opinions? In issues of race, gender, privacy, workers'rights, and more, would advances have been impeded or failuresrectified if the dissenting opinions were in fact the majorityopinions? In offering thirteen famous dissents-from Marbury v. Madison andBrown v. Board of Education to Griswold v. Connecticut and Lawrencev. Texas, each edited with the judges' eloquence preserved-renownedSupreme Court scholar Mark Tushnet reminds us that court decisionsare not pronouncements issued by the utterly objective, they are infact political statements from highly intelligent but partisanpeople. Tushnet introduces readers to the very concept of dissentin the courts and then provides useful context for each case,filling in gaps in the Court's history and providing an overview ofthe issues at

Throughout America’s history, our laws have been a reflectionof who we are, of what we value, of who has control. They embodyour society’s genetic code. In the masterful hands of the subject’sgreatest living historian, the story of the evolution of our lawsserves to lay bare the deciding struggles over power and justicethat have shaped this country from its birth pangs to the present.Law in America is a supreme example of the historian’s art, itsbrevity a testament to the great elegance and wit of itscomposition. From the Hardcover edition.

Nobel laureate Niko Tinbergen laid the foundations for thescientific study of animal behaviour with his work on causation,development, function and evolution. In this book, an internationalcast of leading animal biologists reflect on the enduringsignificance of Tinbergen's groundbreaking proposals for modernbehavioural biology. It includes a reprint of Tinbergen's originalarticle on the famous 'four whys' and a contemporary introduction,after which each of the four questions are discussed in the lightof contemporary evidence. There is also a discussion of the widersignificance of recent trends in evolutionary psychology andneuroecology to integrate the 'four whys'. With a foreword by oneof Tinbergen's most prominent pupils, Aubrey Manning, thiswide-ranging book demonstrates that Tinbergen's views on animalbehaviour are crucial for modern behavioural biology. It willappeal to graduate students and researchers in animal behaviour,behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology.

Wilbert Rideau, an award-winning journalist who spentforty-four years in prison, delivers a remarkable memoir of crime,punishment, and ultimate triumph. After killing a bank teller in a moment of panic during a botchedrobbery, Wilbert Rideau was sentenced to death at the age ofnineteen. He spent several years on death row at Angola before hissentence was commuted to life, where, as editor of the prisonnewsmagazine The Angolite, he undertook a mission to expose andreformLouisiana's iniquitousjustice system from the inside. Vivid,incisive, and compassionate, this is a detailed account of prisonlife and a man who accepted responsibility for his actions andworked to redeem himself. It is a story about not giving up;finding love in unexpected places; the power of kindness; and theability to do good, no matter where you are.

David Boies, the star trial lawyer in a country obsessedwith legal drama, proves endlessly fascinating in this compulsivelyreadable account of his extraordinary career.A man of almostsuperhuman accomplishment, Boies argued a string of headline-makingcases before being catapulted to international prominence when herepresented Al Gore before the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. Brash, reckless, and prideful, he is also charming,charismatic, unerringly articulate in the courtroom, and supremelycomfortable in the public eye. Legal journalist Karen Donovan,herself a lawyer, had unprecedented access to Boies for nearly twoyears. In v. Goliath she gives us a scintillating chronicleof the legal dramas in which Boies has played a crucial role and ariveting, up-close portrait of a singularly gifted lawyer.

?Over 3,000 legal terms defined ?Revised edition with the most up-to-date terminology

The Religious Right has dedicated much of the last thirty years to molding the federal judiciary, always with an eye toward casting the Supreme Court in its image. Through broad political work that has involved grassroots campaigns as much as aggressive lobbying, and a welltended career path for conservative law students and attorneys, the Right has been incredibly effective in influencing major Court decisions on everything from laws banning prayer in school to women's secure access to abortion and birth control. How will the courts set in place in recent decades confront stem cell research, gay rights, or euthanasia in a new era? In The Court and the Cross, attorney and legal journalist Frederick Lane draws on legal history and savvy political analysis to expose, in layperson's terms, the Religious Right's unrelenting efforts to declare the United States a Christian nation.

In 1787. . . We were given the right to practice the religion of ourchoice. We were given the right to say what we wanted withoutpersecution. It was written that our house and property were secure fromunreasonable search and seizure. We were given the right to apublic trial. Fifty-five men we will never know sat in a sweltering room andfought for us. We were given our rights as citizens of the United States. Every second fall, as we return again to the ballot box to decidethe course of our country’s leadership, every voter must find theirway back to that room in Philadelphia. Welcome Books is proud toprovide a map. The Constitution of the United States of America, inscribed andillustrated by the master calligrapher, Sam Fink, brings to lifethe issues underlying the triumphs of this abiding document.Originally published in pen and ink for Random House in 1987, Mr.Fink has gone back to his original black-and-white art and paintedit anew, created a full-color ma

“We need a new idea of how to govern. The current system isbroken. Law is supposed to be a framework for humans to makechoices, not the replacement for free choice.” So notes Philip K.Howard in the new Afterword to his explosive manifesto The Deathof Common Sense . Here Howard offers nothing less than a fresh,lucid, practical operating system for modern democracy. America isdrowning—in law, lawsuits, and nearly endless red tape. Beforeacting or making a decision, we often abandon our best instincts.We pause, we worry, we equivocate, and then we divert our energyinto trying to protect ourselves. Filled with one too many examplesof bureaucratic overreach, The Death of Common Sense demonstrates how we—and our country—can at last get back ontrack.

Can the police strip-search a woman who has been arrested fora minor traffic violation? Can a magazine publish an embarrassingphoto of you without your permission? Does your boss have the rightto read your email? Can a company monitor its employees'off-the-job lifestyles--and fire those who drink, smoke, or livewith a partner of the same sex? Although the word privacy does notappear in the Constitution, most of us believe that we have aninalienable right to be left alone. Yet in arenas that range fromthe battlefield of abortion to the information highway, privacy isunder siege. In this eye-opening and sometimes hair-raising book,Alderman and Kennedy survey hundreds of recent cases in whichordinary citizens have come up against the intrusions ofgovernment, businesses, the news media, and their own neighbors. Atonce shocking and instructive, up-to-date and rich in historicalperspective, The Right to Private is an invaluable guide toone of the most charged issues of our time.