Top 10 best making our democracy work
Finding the best making our democracy work suitable for your needs isnt easy. With hundreds of choices can distract you. Knowing whats bad and whats good can be something of a minefield. In this article, weve done the hard work for you.
Best making our democracy work
1. Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View
Description
Charged with the responsibility of interpreting the Constitution, the Supreme Court has the awesome power to strike down laws enacted by our elected representatives. Why does the public accept the Courts decisions as legitimate and follow them, even when those decisions are highly unpopular? What must the Court do to maintain the publics faith? How can it help make our democracy work?
In this groundbreaking book, Justice Stephen Breyer tackles these questions and more, offering an original approach to interpreting the Constitution that judges, lawyers, and scholars will look to for many years to come.
2. My Own Words
Feature
Simon SchusterDescription
The first book from Ruth Bader Ginsburg since becoming a Supreme Court Justice in 1993a witty, engaging, serious, and playful collection of writings and speeches from the woman who has had a powerful and enduring influence on law, womens rights, and popular culture.My Own Words offers Justice Ginsburg on wide-ranging topics, including gender equality, the workways of the Supreme Court, being Jewish, law and lawyers in opera, and the value of looking beyond US shores when interpreting the US Constitution. Throughout her life Justice Ginsburg has been (and continues to be) a prolific writer and public speaker. This books sampling is selected by Justice Ginsburg and her authorized biographers Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams. Justice Ginsburg has written an introduction to the book, and Hartnett and Williams introduce each chapter, giving biographical context and quotes gleaned from hundreds of interviews they have conducted. This is a fascinating glimpse into the life of one of Americas most influential women.
3. Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View by Stephen Breyer (2011-09-13)
4. The Court and the World: American Law and the New Global Realities
Feature
VintageDescription
In this original, far-reaching, and timely book, Justice Stephen Breyer examines the work of the Supreme Court of the United States in an increasingly interconnected world, a world in which all sorts of activity, both public and privatefrom the conduct of national security policy to the conduct of international tradeobliges the Court to understand and consider circumstances beyond Americas borders.
Written with unique authority and perspective, The Court and the World reveals an emergent reality few Americans observe directly but one that affects the life of every one of us. Here is an invaluable understanding for lawyers and non-lawyers alike.
5. Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution
Description
A brilliant new approach to the Constitution and courts of the United States by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.For Justice Breyer, the Constitutions primary role is to preserve and encourage what he calls active liberty: citizen participation in shaping government and its laws. As this book argues, promoting active liberty requires judicial modesty and deference to Congress; it also means recognizing the changing needs and demands of the populace. Indeed, the Constitutions lasting brilliance is that its principles may be adapted to cope with unanticipated situations, and Breyer makes a powerful case against treating it as a static guide intended for a world that is dead and gone. Using contemporary examples from federalism to privacy to affirmative action, this is a vital contribution to the ongoing debate over the role and power of our courts.6. A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law (The University Center for Human Values Series)
Description
We are all familiar with the image of the immensely clever judge who discerns the best rule of common law for the case at hand. According to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a judge like this can maneuver through earlier cases to achieve the desired aim--"distinguishing one prior case on his left, straight-arming another one on his right, high-stepping away from another precedent about to tackle him from the rear, until (bravo!) he reaches the goal--good law." But is this common-law mindset, which is appropriate in its place, suitable also in statutory and constitutional interpretation? In a witty and trenchant essay, Justice Scalia answers this question with a resounding negative.
In exploring the neglected art of statutory interpretation, Scalia urges that judges resist the temptation to use legislative intention and legislative history. In his view, it is incompatible with democratic government to allow the meaning of a statute to be determined by what the judges think the lawgivers meant rather than by what the legislature actually promulgated. Eschewing the judicial lawmaking that is the essence of common law, judges should interpret statutes and regulations by focusing on the text itself. Scalia then extends this principle to constitutional law. He proposes that we abandon the notion of an everchanging Constitution and pay attention to the Constitution's original meaning. Although not subscribing to the "strict constructionism" that would prevent applying the Constitution to modern circumstances, Scalia emphatically rejects the idea that judges can properly "smuggle" in new rights or deny old rights by using the Due Process Clause, for instance. In fact, such judicial discretion might lead to the destruction of the Bill of Rights if a majority of the judges ever wished to reach that most undesirable of goals.
This essay is followed by four commentaries by Professors Gordon Wood, Laurence Tribe, Mary Ann Glendon, and Ronald Dworkin, who engage Justice Scalia's ideas about judicial interpretation from varying standpoints. In the spirit of debate, Justice Scalia responds to these critics.
7. Administrative Law & Regulatory Policy: Problems Text & Cases 7e (Aspen Casebook Series)
Description
Outstanding authorship, rich materials, and systematic coverage are the hallmarks of Administrative Law and Regulatory Policy, now in its seventh edition. Administrative procedure is examined in light of substantive policy debates in areas such as health, safety, environmental protection, and economic regulation. Questions, notes, and problems support thoughtful reading and analysis of Supreme Court decisions, agency actions, and matters of contemporary debate.A careful and rigorous revision, the Seventh Edition updates content throughout, gives consistent attention to detail, and tightens the presentation. Combining attention to the most recent developments in the field with the rigor and breadth that have always characterized this classic book, the Seventh Edition offers a thorough and timely overview of administrative law.
Timeless features of this landmark casebook:
- logical organization that reveals the interaction of doctrine and procedure, as well as bureaucratic and political factors
- Notes and Problems that methodically explore all aspects of regulatory law and policy
- historical background material that shows how the New Deal changed American government
- in-depth consideration of the justifications for and tools of regulation
New in the Seventh Edition
- completely revised materials on presidential appointment and removal
- coverage of e-rulemaking, the Obama Administration's transparency and openness initiatives, and other uses of new technologies
- material on the Information Quality Act, midnight regulations, and guidance documents
- a brief new section on global administrative law
- key Supreme Court decisions: Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB, Gonzales v. Oregon, Massachusetts v. EPA, FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., Woodford v. Ngo
- streamlined Notes and Questions
- expanded statutory appendix
Table of Contents:
Ch. 1. Introduction
Ch. 2. The Constitutional Position of the Administrative Agency
Ch. 3. Administrative Discretion, Administrative Substance, and Regulatory Performance
Ch. 4. The Scope of Judicial Review--Questions of Fact, Law, and Policy
Ch. 5. "Common Law" Requirements: Clarity, Consistency, "Fairness"
Ch. 6. Procedural Requirements in Agency Decisionmaking: Rulemaking and Adjudication
Ch. 7. Agency Decisionmaking Structure
Ch. 8. The Availability and Timing of Judicial Review
Appendix A: Selected Provisions from the U.S. Constitution
Appendix B: Selected Provisions from the Federal Administrative Procedure Act
Appendix C: Selected Provisions from the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act
Appendix D: Negotiated Rulemaking and Alternative Dispute Resolution Acts
Appendix E: Congressional Review Act
Appendix F: Information Quality Act
Appendix G: Selected Provisions from the E-Government Act
8. Regulation and Its Reform
Feature
Used Book in Good ConditionDescription
This book will become the bible of regulatory reform. No broad, authoritative treatment of the subject has been available for many years except for Alfred Kahns Economics of Regulation (1970). And Stephen Breyers book is not merely a utilitarian analysis or a legal discussion of procedures; it employs the widest possible perspective to survey the full implications of government regulationeconomic, legal, administrative, politicalwhile addressing the complex problems of administering regulatory agencies.
Only a scholar with Judge Breyers practical experience as chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee could have accomplished this task. He develops an ingenious original system for classifying regulatory activities according to the kinds of problems that have called for, or have seemed to call for, regulation; he then examines how well or poorly various regulatory regimes remedy these market defects. This enables him to organize an enormous amount of material in a coherent way, and to make significant and useful generalizations about real-world problems.
Among the regulatory areas he considers are health and safety; environmental pollution, trucking, airlines, natural gas, public utilities, and telecommunications. He further gives attention to related topics such as cost-of-service ratemaking, safety standards, antitrust, and property rights. Clearly this is a book whose time is herea veritable how-to-do-it book for administration deregulators, legislators, and the judiciary; and because it is comprehensive and superbly organized, with a wealth of highly detailed examples, it is practical for use in law schools and in courses on economics and political science.
9. Administrative Law and Regulatory Policy: Problems, Text, and Cases, Seventh Edition, 2015-2016 Case Supplement (Supplements)
Description
Administrative Law and Regulatory Policy: Problems, Text, and Cases, Seventh Edition, 2015-2016 Case Supplement10. Against the Death Penalty
Feature
Brookings Institution PressDescription
A landmark dissenting opinion arguing against the death penalty.
Does the death penalty violate the Constitution? In Against the Death Penalty, Justice Stephen Breyer argues that it does; that it is carried out unfairly and inconsistently and, thus, violates the ban on "cruel and unusual punishments" specified by the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.
Todays administration of the death penalty, Breyer writes, involves three fundamental constitutional defects: (1) serious unreliability, (2) arbitrariness in application, and (3) unconscionably long delays that undermine the death penaltys penological purpose. Perhaps as a result, (4) most places within the United States have abandoned its use.
This volume contains Breyer's dissent in the case of Glossip v. Gross, which involved an unsuccessful challenge to Oklahoma's use of a lethal-injection drug because it might cause severe pain. Justice Breyer's legal citations have been edited to make them understandable to a general audience, but the text retains the full force of his powerful argument that the time has come for the Supreme Court to revisit the constitutionality of the death penalty.
Breyer was joined in his dissent from the bench by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Their passionate argument has been cited by many legal experts including fellow Justice Antonin Scaliaas signaling an eventual Court ruling striking down the death penalty. A similar dissent in 1963 by Breyer's mentor, Justice Arthur J. Goldberg, helped set the stage for a later ruling, imposing what turned out to be a four-year moratorium on executions.
Recent Comments