FIRST AMONG EQUALS: The Supreme Court in American Life

Starr steps decisively away from his celebrated (or infamous, depending on your politics) role in the Clinton imbroglio and focuses here on the U.S. Supreme Court over the last 30 years. To this analysis Starr brings experience as a law clerk to Chief Justice Burger, federal appellate judge, U.S. solicitor general and professor of constitutional law. The author selects some 14 areas of law for examination, ranging from freedom of speech to separation of church and state, from abortion to affirmative action. For each area, Starr profiles several major decisions of the Rehnquist Court. For the author, the court under Rehnquist is centrist, lawyerly and analytical, a welcome departure from the activism and judicial policymaking of the court under Earl Warren. One principal focus of the book is on the leadership role played by individual justices, especially Justices O'Connor and Breyer, in devising rationales that command majority agreement among their peers. Starr declares that Justice Thomas is the Rehnquist court's most original and creative thinker, but does not explain the basis for this judgment. The book is written in a clear, nontechnical style accessible to a wide readership, not just court watchers and constitutional scholars. This study is slated to be a main selection of the Conservative Book Club, and this is entirely appropriate. Starr delivers attacks on Miranda and Roe v.Wade and a defense of the court's decision in Bush v.Gore. Readers—especially those on the right—interested in the law's evolution will find in this a conservative synthesis of the constitutional thinking of today's Supreme Court. (Oct. 10)