The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right

Veteran Supreme Court reporter Greenhouse (Becoming Justice Blackmun) and Graetz (Death by a Thousand Cuts) have written a detailed, accessible revisionist history of Warren Burger’s tenure as chief justice from 1969 to 1986. As the authors’ introduction explains, the “received wisdom” about those 17 years has been that “nothing much happened.” They convincingly argue that the Supreme Court decisions rendered during that era paved the way for more recent conservative landmark decisions such as the highly controversial 2010 Citizens United ruling on campaign finance. Chapter after chapter recounts the gradual erosion of the doctrines of the prior, progressive Earl Warren Court in virtually all areas of American life; for instance, while the expansion of the rights that had been granted to criminal defendants (e.g., Miranda warnings) survived, they did so as facades, as Burger’s court drastically limited their effectiveness. This is the best kind of legal history: cogent, relevant, and timely, given the focus on the Court’s role and power after the death of Justice Scalia. Agent: Wendy Strothman, Strothman Agency. (June)