by Kermit L. Hall, James W. Ely, Joel B. Grossman (Editor)



Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up-- An extremely thorough treatment of the subject, composed of
brief defining entries and lengthy essays by almost 300 contributors,
including lawyers, judges, scholars, and journalists, who were charged
with the responsibility of making their presentations accessible to a
general readership. Entries, arranged alphabetically, cover the internal
operations and history of the Court; biographical information on all of
the justices plus other relevant historical figures; definitions of basic
legal and constitutional terminology; and the process of selecting,
nominating, and confirming justices. More than 400 entries examine the
Court's most significant decisions. All are signed; those of any length
are followed by selective bibliographies of further reading. Every effort
has been made to provide adequate cross referencing within the text and at
the end of entries. Cases (with proper citation), persons, places, and
institutions are indexed. This work will be of value not only to students
of the Court and constitutional law, but also to those needing information
(interpretive and/or historical) about the major socioeconomic issues of
our day. Illustrations, primarily portraits and photographs of the
justices, are of good quality and appropriately placed. This is a landmark
publication, representing the highest standard of American scholarship. It
is strongly recommended for reference collections serving high school
students.
- Tess McKellen, Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn

Product Description:

In Democracy in America, De Tocqueville observed that there is hardly a
political question in the United States which does not sooner or later
turn into a judicial one. Two hundred years of American history have
certainly born out the truth of this remark. Whether a controversy is
political, economic, or social, whether it focuses on child labor,
slavery, prayer in public schools, war powers, busing, abortion, business
monopolies, or capital punishment, eventually the battle is taken to
court. And the ultimate venue for these vital struggles is the Supreme
Court. Indeed, the Supreme Court is a prism through which the entire life
of our nation is magnified and illuminated, and through which we have
defined ourselves as a people.

Now, in The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States,
readers have a rich source of information about one of the central
institutions of American life. Everything one would want to know about the
Supreme Court is here, in more than a thousand alphabetically arranged
entries. There are biographies of every justice who ever sat on the
Supreme Court (with pictures of each) as well as entries on rejected
nominees and prominent judges (such as Learned Hand), on presidents who
had an important impact on--or conflict with--the Court (including Thomas
Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt), and on other
influential figures (from Alexander Hamilton to Cass Gilbert, the
architect of the Supreme Court Building). More than four hundred entries
examine every major case that the court has decided, from Marbury v.
Madison (which established the Court's power to declare federal laws
unconstitutional) and Scott v. Sandford (the Dred Scott Case) to Brown v.
Board of Education and Roe v. Wade. In addition, there are extended essays
on the major issues that have confronted the Court (from slavery to
national security, capital punishment to religion, from affirmative action
to the Vietnam War), entries on judicial matters and legal terms (ranging
from judicial review and separation of powers to amicus brief and habeas
corpus), articles on all Amendments to the Constitution, and an extensive,
four-part history of the Court. And as in all Oxford Companions, the
contributors combine scholarship with engaging insight, giving us a sense
of the personality and the inner workings of the Court. They examine
everything from the wanderings of the Supreme Court (the first session was
held on the second floor of the Royal Exchange Building in New York City,
and the Court at times has met in a Congressional committee room, a
tavern, a rented house, and finally, in 1935, its own building), to the
Jackson-Black Feud and the clouded resignation of Abe Fortas, to the
Supreme Court's press room and the paintings and sculptures adorning the
Supreme Court building.

The decisions of the Supreme Court have touched--and will continue to
influence--every corner of American society. A comprehensive,
authoritative guide to the Supreme Court, this volume is an essential
reference source for everyone interested in the workings of this vital
institution and in the multitude of issues it has confronted over the
course of its history.

Product Details

Hardcover: 1066 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press (October 1, 1992)
ISBN: 0195058356