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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Judicial Power & Civil Rights Reconsidered, David E. Bernstein, Ilya Somin
Judicial Power & Civil Rights Reconsidered, David E. Bernstein, Ilya Somin
George Mason University School of Law Working Papers Series
Michael Klarman's "From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality" is an important contribution to the scholarly literature on both the history of the civil rights struggle and judicial power more generally. Klarman argues that for much of the twentieth century, the Supreme Court was very reluctant to rule in favor of African American civil rights claimants, and had little impact when it did.
Klarman is right to reject traditional accounts that greatly exaggerated the Supreme Court's willingness and ability to protect minorities. However, he overstates his case. The Court's views on the …