Justices, Presidents, and Senators

A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Bush II

By (author) Henry J. Abraham

Publication date:

24 December 2007

Length of book:

480 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

264x188mm
7x10"

ISBN-13: 9780742558946

Revised to include the last eight years of Supreme Court decisions and nominations, this updated classic is the most comprehensive and accessible history of the first 110 members of the U.S. Supreme Court ever written. Henry J. Abraham, one of the nation's preeminent scholars of the judicial branch, addresses the vital questions of why individual justices were nominated to the highest court, how their nominations were received by legislators of the day, whether the appointees ultimately lived up to the expectations of the American public, and the legacy of their jurisprudence on the development of American law and society. Abraham's insights into the history of the Supreme Court are unrivaled by other studies of the subject, and among his numerous observations is that fully one-fifth of its members were viewed as failures by the presidents who appointed them. Enhanced by photographs of every justice from 1789 to 2007, Abraham's eloquent writing and meticulous research guarantee that this book will interest both general readers and scholars.

Chapter 1 1. Introductory Reflections: Of Criteria, Evaluations, and Judgements
Chapter 2 2. The Nixon Era: A Turbulent Case Study
Chapter 3 3. How They Get There: Appointing Supreme Court Justices
Chapter 4 4. Why They Get There: Qualifications and Rationalizations
Chapter 5 5. The First Forty Years: From George Washington to John Quincy Adams, 1789-1829
Chapter 6 6. The Next Forty Years: From Andrew Jackson to Andrew Johnson, 1829-1869
Chapter 7 7. The Balance of the Nineteenth Century: From Ulysses S. Grant to William McKinley, 1869-1901
Chapter 8 8. Into the Twentieth Century: From Theodore Roosevelt to Herbert Hoover, 1901-1933
Chapter 9 9. The Court Alters Course: FDR and Truman, 1933-1953
Chapter 10 10. The Warren Court: From Ike to LBJ, 1953-1969
Chapter 11 11. The Burger Court: From Nixon to Reagan, 1969-1986
Chapter 12 12. The Rehnquist Court: Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton, 1986-2005
Chapter 13 13. The Roberts Court: 2005-
Chapter 14 14. Epilogue
Chapter 15 Appendix A: Rating Supreme Court Justices
Chapter 16 Appendix B: Rating Presidents
Chapter 17 Appendix C: Statistical Data on Supreme Court Justices

Dr. Abraham's up-to-date classic is THE DEFINITIVE book on Supreme Court appointments. No wonder it graces the shelves of the justices' libraries! All Court observers will relish its eloquent, insightful, vivid descriptions of judicial politics and history.