First published in 1994. In the two centuries of governance under the Constitution, 105 men and two women have sat as justices on the nation’s highest tribunal, the Supreme Court of the United States. Each of them has brought some unique insights or talents to that position. Contributors to this volume were asked to concentrate on the judicial tenure of their subjects, and to interpret those careers and evaluate their importance. They were asked to deal with the pre-Court years only insofar as those experiences had a major impact on jurisprudence.

DIVIlluminates recent national economic policy and warns against the single-minded commitment to balance the federal budget. The paperback edition features a new preface and afterword /div

A rich, multifaceted history of affirmative action from the Civil Rights Act of 1866 through today’s tumultuous times From an acclaimed legal historian, a history of affirmative action from its beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to the first use of the term in 1935 with the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act (the Wagner Act) to 1961 and John F. Kennedy’s Executive Order 10925, mandating that federal contractors take “affirmative action” to ensure that there be no discrimination by “race, creed, color, or national origin” down to today’s American society. Melvin Urofsky explores affirmative action in relation to sex, gender, and education and shows that nearly every public university in the country has at one time or another, successfully or not, instituted some form of affirmative action plan. Urofsky traces the evolution of affirmative action through labor and the struggle for racial equality, writing of World War I and the exodus that began when some six mil­lion African Americans moved northward between 1910 and 1960, one of the greatest internal migrations in the country’s history. He describes how Harry Truman, after becoming president in 1945, fought for Roosevelt’s Fair Employment Practice Act and, surprising everyone, appointed a distinguished panel to serve as the President’s Commission on Civil Rights, as well as appointing the first black judge on a federal appeals court in 1948 and, by executive order later that year, ordering full racial integration in the armed forces. In this important, ambitious, far-reaching book, Urofsky writes about the affirmative action cases decided by the Supreme Court: cases that either upheld or struck down particular plans that affected both governmental and private entities. We come to fully understand the societal impact of affirmative action: how and why it has helped, and inflamed, people of all walks of life; how it has evolved; and how, and why, it is still needed.

"Informed in 1944 that she was 'not of the sex' entitled to be admitted to Harvard Law School, African American activist Pauli Murray confronted the injustice she called 'Jane Crow.' In the 1960s and 1970s, the analogies between sex and race discrimination pioneered by Murray became potent weapons in the battle for women's rights, as feminists borrowed rhetoric and legal arguments from the civil rights movement. Serena Mayeri's Reasoning from Race is the first book to explore the development and consequences of this key feminist strategy. Mayeri uncovers the history of an often misunderstood connection at the heart of American antidiscrimination law. Her study details how a tumultuous political and legal climate transformed the links between race and sex equality, civil rights and feminism. Battles over employment discrimination, school segregation, reproductive freedom, affirmative action, and constitutional change reveal the promise and peril of reasoning from race--and offer a vivid picture of Pauli Murray, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and others who defined feminists' agenda. Looking beneath the surface of Supreme Court opinions to the deliberations of feminist advocates, their opponents, and the legal decisionmakers who heard--or chose not to hear--their claims, Reasoning from Race showcases previously hidden struggles that continue to shape the scope and meaning of equality under the law"--Publisher description

The only reference guide to Supreme Court cases organized both topically and chronologically within chapters so that readers understand how cases fit into a historical context, the 18th edition has been updated with 20 new cases, including landmark decisions on such topics as executive powers, federalism, religious freedom, free speech, LGBTQ rights, and voting rights, among others. Updated through the end of the 2021 Supreme Court session, this book remains and indispensable resource for undergraduate and law school students, lawyers, and everyone interested in our nation’s laws and Constitution.

"A path-breaking analysis of the advent and consequences of deep class stratification in African American society since the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Characterized by breadth of vision and reflective realism, Rethinking the American Race Problem is a worthy and welcome successor to Gunnar Myrdal's seminal work, The American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, published almost half a century ago."—Boris I. Bittker, Yale University "Insightful, tightly argued, and deeply felt. . . . This brilliant book will affect the thinking of all who read it."—William A. Fletcher, University of California "Rethinking the American Race Problem challenges the conventional understanding of the problem of race relations in the United States."—Gerrald Torres, University of Minnesota "Offers a fresh and intellectually provocative perspective on the relationship between race and public policy in today's America."—Martin Kilson, Harvard University

Covers the people, court cases, historical events, and terms relating to one of the most studied political documents in schools across the country, the United States Constitution.