 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | Kermit L. Hall, Dean of the College of Humanities, Executive Dean of the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences, and Professor of History and Law at Ohio State University, is well versed in American constitutional and legal history, and has a skillful touch when it comes to editing the contributions of well over 100 legal scholars (from attorneys and state supreme court justices to professors of law, political science, constitutional history, and government), producing a reference tome that invites the attention of lay legal beagles, students of American history, and practicing members of the legal profession. The first 348 pages are devoted to an alphabetically arranged presentation of more than 400 of the Supreme Court's most significant and consequential decisions, from Abington School District v. Schempp (1963, reaffirming that the establishment clause forbids public schools from sponsoring religious prayerful practices) to Zurcher v. "The Stanford Daily" (1978, ruling 5 to 3 that the Palo Alto police had violated neither the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press nor the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches when they obtained a warrant and inspected the offices of Stanford University's student newspaper). Each case synopsis, generally half a page to a full page in length, describes the background incident, the constitutional issues in question, a concise summary of the reasoning behind the majority and dissenting opinions, what the public reaction was, and in what ways that ruling affected future cases and laws. In addition, there's a glossary of terms, defining general legal concepts such as bail as well as less commonly known practices such as the Bad Tendency Test, an appendix containing the Constitution of the United States, another appendix covering the nominations and succession of Supreme Court justices, and an exhaustively comprehensive topical index. It's a pleasure to see a reference work that so effectively and engagingly treats the major decisions of the Supreme Court from 1789 to present. --Stephanie Gold |
Average Customer Rating:   A Very Useful Reference for the Layman This work contains synopses of the most important US Supreme Court cases in US history. One can critize the level of detail given in each case, but I decided most cases were presented in about the right amount of detail for a cursory understanding. In some respects the volume has been supplanted by Google on the internet, but I found that it was relatively easy to find a case if I knew the general subject or the plaintiff's name. The index was not complete, and that was a serious deficiency given that this was intended to be a work of ready reference.
Other features that were particularly useful included the glossary of terms, mostly legal, the inclusion of the Constitution for reference, the nominations and succession of justices, appointments by each president, and other references by legal topic. Here, my only criticism was that there was no list of references on the history of Common Law going back in England and containing works covering the development of citizenship and legal institutions under Common Law. For some reason, these subject continue to be a complete mystery to American lawyers to our great misfortune.
Frankly, this volume should be on the shelf for every American interested in politics, democracy, and the American republic. The topics contained within have attained enormous importance over time, and many of these cases should be well-known to American voters.
I highly recommend this book to all. One could much worse than starting at the front and reading through the volume from cover to cover. That might sound extreme, but there are simply so many things that citizens need to know that such action is probably necessary. After reading the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, everyone should read this book. In fact, it probably should be required for high school graduation. Good General Overview As a political scientist, I approached this book with a view towards understanding the social impetus and political environment surrounding a particular court decision. This is an excellent book for such an endeavor. It is probably too superficial for a legal companion but in terms of understanding the issues involved in a case, it is pretty good. Further, the overviews also cite some of the more important precedents cited by the court in a given decison as well as those decisions or statutes overturned in a case.
As an aside, it is interesting to see how decisions are made without the full court. Time and again you see the notation "Justices blank and blank not participating".
John C. McKee Useful reference book The "Oxford Guide to US Supreme Court Decisions" is not much more than that. It gives an extremely expansive overview of all US Supreme Court cases that can remotely be considered important, throughout the period of its existence. Every case contains information on the reference number, the composition of the majority, concurrence and dissents, and a summary of what the case or controversy was about by a legal scholar.
The latter are sometimes a little problematic. Many cases are not given more than one or two paragraphs, and the index is incomplete. Some of the writers of the summaries also have a tendency to insinuate their own opinions on the cases into it, which goes particularly for those done by Kermit Hall himself, which are invariably positive about the most progressive justices and generally scathing about Scalia (though this is done in a 'read between the lines' manner, of course). An additional issue is that the index is incomplete, and the promised biographies of all Justices is no more than a list of their dates of nomination, appointment and death, which is rather disappointing.
Still overall, it's an essential reference book for looking up cases and the inclusion of related cases in the case summaries makes it much easier to trace precedent through the decades. Oxford Guire to US Supreme Court Decisions This is a handy reference to quickly correlate discussions of past decisions in the many articles on supreme court actions as well as during the confirmation process. It is a good book for every supreme court watcher to have on the shelf. Great Introduction Book This book is perfect if you are interested in important decisions of the Supreme court but do not want to spend hours reading arguments, decisions and dissents in a civics book or findlaw. Oxford explains what happened in the case, why it is important and what the Supreme Court's decision did for American law.
It is small, well bound, and for the price of the paperback it is a valuable ancillary text or primary text for any person who is interested in the law or the history of Supreme court decisions. It even offers a glossary for law jargon, the American constitution and the succession of the justices of the Supreme court.
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