Law Commons^™

Gerrymandering And The Constitutional Norm Against Government Partisanship, Michael S. Kang

Michigan Law Review

This Article challenges the basic premise in the law of gerrymandering that partisanship is a constitutional government purpose at all. The central problem, Justice Scalia once explained in Vieth v. Jubilerer, is that partisan gerrymandering becomes unconstitutional only when it “has gone too far,” giving rise to the intractable inquiry into “how much is too much.” But the premise that partisanship is an ordinary and lawful purpose, articulated confidently as settled law and widely understood as such, is largely wrong as constitutional doctrine. The Article surveys constitutional law to demonstrate the vitality of an important, if implicit norm against …

Court-Gazing, Stephen F. Williams

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Turning Right: The Making of the Rehnquist Supreme Court by David G. Savage and Deciding To Decide: Agenda Setting in the United States Supreme Court by H.W. Perry, Jr.

Storm Center: The Supreme Court In American Politics, Nelson P. Miller

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics by David M. O'Brien

Judge Picking, Abner J. Mikva

Michigan Law Review

A Review of God Save This Honorable Court: How the Choice of Supreme Court Justices Shapes Our History by Laurence H. Tribe

Toward Increased Judicial Activism: The Political Role Of The Supreme Court, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Toward Increased Judicial Activism: The Political Role of the Supreme Court by Arthur Selwyn Miller

The Public's Right To Know: The Supreme Court As Pandora?, Loren P. Beth

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Public's Right to Know: The Supreme Court and the First Amendment by David M. O'Brien

The Nonpartisan Freedom Of Expression Of Public Employees, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Governmental activities affect each of us in a myriad of ways. The government's role as employer may pale in comparison with the more glamorous activities of the government as national defender, law enforcer, and allocator of scarce resources. Yet the legal ramifications of public employment-where the public interest in efficient governmental operation often conflicts with the public employee's freedom-have a profound influence upon American society.

In 1968, the Supreme Court in Pickering v. Board of Education formulated a test designed to balance these interests in defining the scope of a public employee's freedom of expression. In examining the nonpartisan free …

Mr. Justice Powell And The Emerging Nixon Majority, A.E. Dick Howard

Michigan Law Review

In recent years, we have come to expect the debate over Supreme Court nominations to reflect ideological passions in the Government and the country at large; the Fortas, Haynsworth, and Carswell cases remain fresh in memory. In the hearings on the nominations of Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and William H. Rehnquist to the Court, Senate Democratic liberals made clear their intention to probe not only the nominees' integrity and legal qualifications, but also their judicial philosophies. It was ironic, therefore, to watch as liberal members of the Judiciary Committee, through their questions and comments at the confirmation hearings, made Powell, …

Reapportionment--Nine Years Into The "Revolution" And Still Struggling, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Malapportioned legislative districts traditionally have inhibited the effective working of government at the federal, state, and local levels. By 1960, the population disparities among legislative districts had attained such great magnitude "that the integrity of representative government was in many instances endangered." The underrepresented victims of malapportionment sought relief through the courts. Initially the Supreme Court, ever hesitant to enter the "political thicket," declined to address itself to reapportionment controversies. This era of judicial inaction ended in 1962 with the Court's ruling in Baker v. Carr, in which the plaintiffs overcame the formidable barrier posed by the political-question doctrine. …

Representation And Election: The Reapportionment Cases In Retrospect, William P. Irwin

Michigan Law Review

In general, both in the two-year interval between Baker v. Carr and Reynolds v. Sims and in the period following the reapportionment decisions of June 1964, discussion of the issue among scholars and publicists has tended to center upon four problems of varying scope and precision: (1) the jurisdiction of the federal courts to pass upon aspects of state legislative apportionment; (2) the justiciability of the same matter; (3) the substantive merits of the several cases; and, (4) the implications of the decisions for democratic theory and practice. No attempt is made here to reopen the argument about federal jurisdiction; …

The Warren Court And The Political Process, William M. Beaney

Michigan Law Review

Our complex political system creates endless opportunity to debate the proper roles and powers of each of our principal political institutions. Students of the Supreme Court who quarrel over the proper role of the Court sometimes forget that the powers of the President and the proper place of Congress have also been subject to fierce controversy throughout our history, and that the political tension between the national government and the states has provided a persistent theme from the beginning of the Republic. It must never be forgotten that the system provided by the Framers was not designed to produce efficient …

Rodell: Nine Men: A Political History Of The Supreme Court Of The United States From 1790 To 1955, Robert L. Howard

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Rodell: Nine Men: A Political History of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1790 to 1955. By Fred Rodell.