Law and Social Order
Both liberals and conservatives are at odds ideologically in the manner by which the Supreme Court should apply the Constitution. Law and Social Order examines the struggle for ideological power through a timeline of landmark cases.
The book examines the Court's historical conservative tradition, adhering to a rigid constructionist view of the Constitution and a reluctance of selectively incorporating the Bill of Rights,
The Due Process Revolution of the 1960s advanced Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights. These new rights, including the exclusionary rule (1961), the right to counsel (1963), no self-incrimination (1964), and Miranda rights (1966) placed further limitations on the State while extending greater civil liberties to the individual.
Liberal Justices then moved toward an activist agenda, using the Equial Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to interpret the context of various Amendments to include privacy. The shift toward interpreting the Constitution to the evolving standards of society has raised fundamental concerns over the role of Supreme Court Justices.
Justice is defined as a concept of moral righteousness based on ethics, rationality and egailtarianism. Yet many cases that are examined show varied interpretations of applied justice. If justice is subjectively defined, how can justice be guaranteed for all?
