Decision: how the Supreme Court decides cases

Abstract

Decision provides a unique behind-the-scenes look at the Supreme Court and how its Justices decide cases. Distinguished author Bernard Schwartz, uses confidential conference notes, draft opinions, memoranda, letters, and interviews to tell what really goes on behind the red velour curtain. Cases and anecdotes, woven into deft discussions of the Justices and how they function, provide unmatched insights into our high tribunal. We read of the conferences where the Justices cast their votes, the decisions as to who will write opinions (one of the most critical choices made by the Chief Justice), the often extensive give and take of the draft opinion, and the intense lobbying between Justices that influence vote changes (it was Chief Justice Earl Warren's pressure on Justice Reed in Brown that made the final vote unanimous). Schwartz focuses on the Warren, Burger, and Rehnquist Courts, providing not just vivid portraits of the Chief Justices themselves, but also profiles of many Associate Justices in action - including Felix Frankfurter, Byron R. White, Sandra Day O'Connor, William J. Brennan, Thurgood Marshall, and John Paul Stevens. And Schwartz includes an eye-opening discussion of the expanding role of the Justices' clerks, revealing that they are no longer merely a "staff of assistants." Instead, they have evolved into a sort of "Junior Supreme Court," which performs a major part of the judicial role - including the writing of opinions - delegated by the Constitution to the Justices themselves.

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