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Author Sickels, Robert J

Title John Paul Stevens and the Constitution : the search for balance / Robert Judd Sickels
Published University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press, ©1988

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 203 pages)
Series Book collections on Project MUSE
Contents Cover -- Title -- Dedication -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 Judicial Pragmatism -- Rules -- Facts -- Balancing -- Consequences -- Pluralism -- Synopsis -- Origins -- 2 The First Amendment -- Options -- Establishment of Religion -- Obscenity -- Compound Balancing I -- Compound Balancing II -- Conclusion -- 3 Due Process of Law -- Deference to Trial Courts -- Egregious Error -- Deference to Administrators -- How Much Process Is Due? -- Conclusion -- 4 Equal Protection of the Laws -- Explicit Discrimination -- Disproportionate Impact -- Neutral Justification -- Legislative Districting
Adequate Fit -- Conclusion -- 5 The Search for Balance -- The Debate over Balancing -- Stevens's Balancing in Perspective -- The Nature of Stevens's Balancing -- Other Moderates Compared -- Epilogue -- Appendix: A Stevens Sampler -- Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979) -- United States v. Lee, 455 U.S. 252 (1982) -- EEOC v. Wyoming, 460 U.S. 226 (1983) -- Florida v. Meyers, 466 U.S. 380 (1984) -- Walters v. Nat. Assn. of Radiation Survivors, 473 U.S. 305 (1985) -- Moran v. Burbine, 106 S. Ct. 1135 (1986) -- Notes -- General Index -- Index of Cases
Summary A good pragmatist's constitutional theory is inseparable from the legal disputes out of which it arises. John Paul Stevens's theory, that of deciding individual cases well instead of applying constitutional principles in the abstract to cases by category, thus lends itself to being studied in its natural, factual habitat--in his own words, case by case. That's what this book does. In Chapter 1 Sickels distills Stevens's thoughts about law and appellate judging from his early writings and his opinions on the federal appeals court and, from 1975 to the present, on the U.S. Supreme Court. Stevens shows a concern for facts and consequences, for balancing, for deference to other decision makers unless they have been careless, for avoidance of undue complexity in judge-made law, and for drawing the line between clarity and oversimplification in legal rules. The next three chapters describe the application of Stevens's pragmatism to areas of constitutional law to which the Court and he especially have devoted most attention in recent years: First Amendment guarantees of freedom of expression and religion, the procedural guarantees (broadly, due process) of the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, and the equal protection of the laws. In each area, Stevens's special contributions are described. The concluding chapter places Stevens's judging in the contexts of the ongoing debate about the legitimacy of balancing, the ways of other moderates on the Court, and the voting records of the other members of the Court as a whole.Unique to this work is a meaningful introduction to the term moderate when applied to a Supreme Court justice, a definition based on careful analysis of the interplay of general rules and specific, case-by-case context. As such it is the very essence of Stevens's own way of judging and thus enables analysis of the work of a pragmatist on his own terms rather than through the distortions of a conflicting theory of law. John Paul Stevens is recognized as a jurist of unusual ability and one adheres to no ideological camp. While it is one thing to know he is neither rigid liberal nor a conservative, this book goes beyond the ";neither nor"; to accomplish the more difficult goal of defining what he is.This study is intended for scholars and students of the Supreme Court, the Constitution, the courts, and the American political process. Lawyers working before the Supreme Court, informed generalists, and courtwatchers generally, whether liberal, conservative, or neutral, will find much of interest here
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-197)
Notes Includes indexes
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Print version record
Subject Stevens, John Paul, 1920-2019
SUBJECT Stevens, John Paul, 1920-
Stevens, John Paul, 1920-2019 fast
Subject Civil rights -- United States -- Cases
Judicial review -- United States -- Cases
Judicial opinions -- United States
Civil rights -- United States -- Cases
Judicial review of administrative acts -- United States -- Cases
LAW -- Constitutional.
LAW -- Public.
LAW -- Civil Procedure.
LAW -- Legal Services.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- Judicial Branch.
LAW -- Comparative.
Judicial review of administrative acts
Civil rights
Judicial opinions
Judicial review
Rechtsprechung
United States
Genre/Form Trials, litigation, etc.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 87043191
ISBN 9780271073071
0271073071