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Book Review: Supreme Power By Jeff Shesol. New York: W.W. Norton Press, 2009., Craig Jackson

Craig L. Jackson

Abstract

Jeff Shesol’s latest book, SUPREME POWER, is a detailed account of the Roosevelt Administration’s efforts to forge fundamental change in government policy during the Depression, and the obstacles to that change coming from the Supreme Court. Many readers have noticed similarities between the Roosevelt story as portrayed by Shesol and the current administration leading many to consider whether the experiences of the 1930s can be instructive for the current political/economic climate. Underlying policy, whatever the era, is law and a concurrent inquiry to the policy lessons is whether or not the Roberts Court is likely to be as critical …

The Second Amendment And The Myth Of Neutrality: Mcdonald V. City Of Chicago And Judicial Craftsmanship, Craig L. Jackson

Craig L. Jackson

The Supreme Court opinion in McDonald v. City of Chicago was an exercise in one of the Court’s most solemn duties—the identification of a fundamental right. In this case the right identified as fundamental was the right to keep and bear arms. Perhaps it should be called an anointing of a fundamental right because of all of the different jurisprudences that the Court has engaged in since the latter part of the nineteenth century, the identification of fundamental rights for a polity based on principles of liberty is almost sacred. Yet, a fair reading of the opinion, and 2008’s District …