The Supreme Court and the Idea of Progress

by Alexander M. Bickel

A history of the Warren Court and its impact on the political and legal system. Best known for its treatment of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, which Bickel believed was headed for obsolescence and abandonment. Based on the Oliver Wendell Holmes Lectures at Harvard Law School in 1969.

Genres: Law

210 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

A legal scholar and expert on the United States Constitution., Alexander Mordecai Bickel was Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School, where he taught from 1956 until his death. Bickel graduated Phi Beta Kappa from City College of New York in 1947 and summa cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1949. He was a law clerk for federal Judge Calvert Magruder of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and clerked for Justice Felix Frankfurter of the Supreme Court in 1952 and 1953.

Reviews

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though cumbersome at times - I found myself reading and re-reading paragraphs, not because the thought was poorly developed, but because the sentence structure is complex, some blend between the colloquialism of a lecture (where these chapters were first delivered) and a demanding, self-referential treatise - this book repays careful attention. And if you enjoyed this first sentence, this is definitely a work for you.

Bickel provides a cogent analysis of the Warren Court's desegregation and reapportionment jurisprudence to critique the Court's understanding of itself and American democracy, but his argument frequently moves beyond simple jurisprudence to draw on Tocqueville, the Federalist, Mill, and democratic theory at large (predominately Dahl), and at once raises the brow of the lawyer and recalls the philosopher from the clouds to question the proper place of visions of progress in the function and application of the law.