Reddit reviews In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action
We found 3 Reddit comments about In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Hardcover-no dust jacket
It an older book, but Ellen Aldernan & Kathleen Kennedy’s “In Our Defense” uses real Supreme Court cases to explore each of the amendments to the constitution. They even manage to find a Third Amendment case, which ain’t easy.
> It is the judge's job to interpret the law and enforce it. It is the lawmaker's job to write the law and implement it.
Actually, you'll find that "interpreting the law" often puts judges in a role people view as "activist". When a judge is considering the law, they have to look at the text of the law and consider precedent. If there is no precedent, they also have to fall back on anything which might illustrate the lawmakers original intent. Failing that, they also fall back on (yes, it's true), English Common Law as it's ultimately the basis of US law.
The upshot of this is that precedent and intent fall back on the public's evolving community standards. Brown v. Board of Education, for example, overturned Plessy v. Ferguson in part because "separate but equal" did not fit the 1950s evolving notion of equality. However, because the Supreme Court decided, unanimously, to alter how law should be enacted, they perfectly fit the "judicial activism" claim that may politicians harp about today. Frankly, I believe politicians are well aware of this hypocrisy, but it gets voters motivated, so they keep their mouths shut.
If you want more background information about this, I strongly recommend the book In Our Defence: The Bill of Rights in Action by Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy. It's a fascinating historical guide of the creation and interpretation of the US Bill of Rights, and has chapters covering each of the first 10 amendments.
So-the-fuck-what if Caroline Kennedy has little "political experience," whatever the fuck that means.
She's read the Constitution, heck, she's written a book on the Bill of Rights.
We need less political lemmings in there and more free-thinkers. If we pass up Caroline Kennedy for someone with "political experience", that is, one whose ideals are tainted by decades of maneuvering, the United States will be the sorrier for it.