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Overruling
Democracy
The
Supreme Court vs. The American People
By
Jamin B. Raskin Reviews
The Supreme Court has recently issued
decisions announcing that citizens have neither a constitutional
right to vote, nor the right to an education. Conservative
judges have continually disavowed claims to any rights not
specifically mentioned in the Constitution. In
Overruling
Democracy, celebrated law professor Jamin B. Raskin, argues
that we need to develop a whole new set of rights, through
amendments or court decisions, that revitalize and protect the
democracy of everyday life. Detailing specific cases through
interesting narratives, Overruling Democracy describes
the transgressions of the Supreme Court against the Constitution
and the people—and the faulty reasoning behind them
—and
lays out the plan for the best way to back a more democratic
system.
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* * * *
In
Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court determined the American
people have "no federal constitutional right to vote."
But the Court's denial of this most basic right of democracy is
the tip of the iceberg.
In
Overruling
Democracy,: The Supreme Court Versus the American
People (Routledge, March 7, 2003, $27.50), Raskin argues
that we are facing judicial activism of nearly unprecedented
ferocity, with the Court routinely striking down democratically
developed federal laws like the Violence Against Women Act, the
Gun-Free School Zones Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration
Act, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, and affirmative
action programs.
Meantime,
the judiciary has interfered with democracy by wiping out
majority-African American and Hispanic congressional districts;
inventing "rights" for private corporations to spend
unlimited funds in public initiative and referendum campaigns;
upholding discriminatory ballot access laws that exclude third
parties; and denying the existence of a right to equal spending
on public schools.
Raskin
argues that defending civil liberties is insufficient to deal
with the current judicial "reactivism" because today
the minority is stifling the rights of the majority. What needs
to be defended is democracy. Arguing for a new
"constitutional patriotism," Raskin urges a series of
constitutional amendments to protect the democratic rights the
Court has read out of the document. Taking fellow liberals to
task for being afraid of constitutional politics, Raskin argues
it is time to take the issue of overruling democracy directly to
the people.
*
* * * *.
This
brilliantly argued and meticulously researched book both alarms
and inspires. Raskin shows how the Supreme Court has used its
own perverse version of judicious activism to attack our
fundamental constitutional rights -- and he offers a vision for
how to restore democracy to America. Overruling Democracy
belongs on the reading list of anyone who takes citizenship
serious.—Barbara
Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed
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* * * *
Jamin
Raskin brilliantly shows how political and legislative democracy
are being scandalously curtailed and undermined by the Supreme
Court, which has become law unto itself. Not a counsel of
despair, Overruling Democracy also explains how we the
people--with a little courage--can reclaim our democracy.—Robert
Kuttner, co-editor, The American
Prospect
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* * * *
American democracy thrives because
people like Jamin Raskin, an eloquent, thoughtful and
provocative small-d democrat, insist on reminding us of our
aspirations to equality and rule by the people. You may disagree
with some of his ideas, as I do, and still come away refreshed
and even electrified. The old issue was liberal judicial
activism. The new issue is a conservative judicial activism that
could constrain the ability of the democratic branches of our
government to solve public problems. For liberals, Raskin says,
‘it is time to let go of any lingering nostalgic enchantment
with the Supreme Court.’ He's right.”—E.J. Dionne, author of Why Americans Hate Politics
* * * * *
Jamin Raskin is in the forefront of
progressive academics who bring specialized knowledge to bear on
the large pressing issues of the day in a language that is
broadly accessible. InOverruling
Democracy,he offers a critique of American law
and politics that is impassioned yet thoughtful, polemical yet
informative.”—Randall
Kennedy, Professor, Harvard Law School
* * * * *
Jamin Raskin offers a passionate
vision of the Supreme Court as the guardian of participatory
democracy in America. Even those who take a more restrained view
of the role of judges will benefit from his powerful arguments
and moral fervor.”—Jeffrey
Rosen, Legal Affairs Editor, The
New Republic
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* * * *
A gripping book about
the Supreme Court's assault on the political rights of the people.
This book is required reading for every citizen who cares about
the fate or our democracy.—John
Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO
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* * *
Raskin's groundbreaking
suggestions for a democratic political reform movement provide the
reader with a brighter vision for the future of the American
governmental system.
—Congressman
John Conyers, (D. Michigan), Democratic leader on the House
Judiciary Committee
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* * * *
Overruling
Democracy
The
Supreme Court vs. The American People
By
Jamin B. Raskin
Contents
| Acknowledgments |
ix |
|
|
|
| Chapter One |
|
| The Supreme Court and America's Democracy Deficit |
1 |
|
|
| Chapter Two |
|
| The Court Supreme |
11 |
| Bush v. Gore and the Judicial Assault on
Democracy |
|
|
|
| Chapter Three |
|
| Reading Democracy Out |
31 |
| The Citizen Has No Right to Vote and the Majority
Doesn't Rule |
|
|
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| Chapter Four |
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| Unequal Protection |
69 |
| The Supreme Court's Racial Double Standard in
Redistricting |
|
|
|
| Chapter Five |
|
| America's Signature Exclusion |
91 |
| How Democracy Is Made Safe for the Two-Party System |
|
|
|
| Chapter Six |
|
| "Arrogant Orwellian Bureaucrats" |
117 |
| How America's Electoral-Industrial Complex Controls |
|
| Our Political Debates and Gerrymanders Your Mind |
|
|
|
| Chapter 7 |
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| Schooling for Democracy |
143 |
|
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| Chapter Eight |
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| Democracy and the Corporation |
171 |
|
|
| Chapter Nine |
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| Unflagging Patriotism |
199 |
| The People, the Flag, and the Constitution |
|
|
|
| Chapter 10 |
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| Democracy Rising |
223 |
| Overruling the Court, Reighting America |
|
|
|
| Notes |
243 |
|
|
| Index |
279 |
Bio Sketch
Jamin Raskin is a professor of
constitutional law and law of the political process at American
University's Washington College of Law.
He is also director of its Appleseed Project on Electoral
Reform and founder of its Marshall-Brennan Fellows Program,
which sends law students into public high schools to teach a
course in constitutional literacy.
A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and
Harvard Law School and former Editor of the Harvard Law Review,
Professor Raskin has served as an Assistant Attorney General in
Massachusetts and as General Counsel to the National Rainbow
Coalition.
Professor Raskin's prolific
scholarship defines democracy as the central value of American
legal and political institutions.
He calls himself a "political democracy" lawyer
and has represented diverse individuals and groups, including
the nearly 600,000 citizens of Washington, D.C. who challenged
their lack of voting representation in the United States
Congress; thousands of non-citizens successfully petitioning for
the right to vote in Takoma Park, Maryland; third-party
political candidates facing partisan discrimination, including
Ross Perot and Ralph Nader; United Students Against Sweatshops,
Global Exchange, and the Service Employees International Union
in cases relating to union free speech rights; and the National
Voting Rights Institute in defense of progressive campaign
finance changes.
Professor Raskin served on President Clinton's Justice
Department Transition Team for the Civil Rights Division has
also been a consultant to the national office of the ACLU.
Since his appointment in 2001, he has served as the first
Chairman of Maryland's Higher Education Labor Relations Board,
which has given thousands of workers the right to organize.
Professor Raskin has testified frequently before Congress
on issues of voting rights and democratic participation.
Raskin's 1999 book, We the
Students: Supreme Court Cases for and about America's Students
(the Supreme Court Historical Society and CQ Press), has sold
more than 25,000 copies. The
first casebook ever written for high school students by a law
professor, We the Students collects and analyzes the 35
most important Supreme Court decisions ever handed down about
the rights and responsibilities of high school students.
Reviewing the book, Nat Hentoff called it "extraordinarily
clear and compelling" and "the most important
book" ever published by the Supreme Court Historical
Society. Historian
Garry Wills called it "a model textbook," and Judge
Kenneth Starr said of it: "Civics class will never be the
same."
Raskin has authored dozens of law
review articles that have appeared in law reviews at Harvard,
Yale, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, the University
of Texas, and many others.
His popular writings have appeared in the Washington
Post, the Los Angeles Times, the American Prospect,
Slate, Salon, Legal Times, the Nation,
California Lawyer, Newsday, George and
numerous other periodicals.
Professor Raskin's work on democracy,
voting, campaign finance and the political process has been
profiled and discussed in the New York Times, the Washington
Post, the New Republic, the Nation and
countless other newspapers and magazines.
He has appeared on major television and radio shows,
including National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, the Diane
Rehm Show, the Kojo Nnamdi Show, PowerPoint, the O'Reilly Factor
on Fox, Crossfire on CNN, the Sam Donaldson show, the Larry King
show, C-Span, CNN, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, WTOP, WUSA,
Pacifica Radio and dozens of local television and radio shows.
|
Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered
the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It
By H. W. Brands
In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power--and the enormous risks--of the dollar's worldwide reign. The Economy |
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 28
November 2011
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