Biographical Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court

by Melvin I. Urofsky (Editor)

The recent dramatic shift in makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court has led to great interest in the rulings and legal opinions of its justices. Now, CQ Press brings you a comprehensive volume that analyzes the lives and legal philosophies of all past and present justices of the Court. Biographical Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court includes signed essays profiling the men and women who have served and are serving on the U.S. Supreme Court. This one-of-a-kind reference includes not only important biographical information, but also in-depth details of the legal contributions made by the men and women of the nation′s highest bench. Keeping up with the recent changes to the Court, this volume includes all current justices. New essays profile Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Justices are arranged in an easy-to-use alphabetical format. Each essay is prefaced with key biographical information for each justice such Within each essay, written by a top legal expert, scholar, or journalist, Biographical Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court provides facts and context along with analysis of the opinions and legal philosophies for each justice. This new volume is an updated edition of The Supreme Court A Biographical Dictionary (1994). It will prove a valuable resource for academic, community college, law school, and public libraries.

624 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Melvin I. Urofsky is professor of law and public policy and a professor emeritus of history at Virginia Commonwealth University. He received his B.A. from Columbia University in 1961 and doctorate in 1968. He also received his JD from the University of Virginia. He teaches at American University and George Washington University Law School.

Reviews

[MJ]

Shelved for later reading.

[Mark Desrosiers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a whole lot of personal gossip, though I do enjoy the touching story of Chief Justice Stone's collapse -- and longtime enemy Hugo Black's intuitive gaveling to a close the proceedings -- on a soggy April day in 1946. Stone died soon thereafter of a massive cerebral hemorrhage.

The book's real value is in demonstrating that the Supreme Court has usually consisted of halfwit ciphers, ideological troglodytes, addled geezers, and the occasional bright hothead (William O. Douglas is my favorite in the last category). By skipping around chronologically (the entries are alphabetical) you can see the sinister birth and death or dormancy of concepts like "substantive due process" (a.k.a. Protect the Plutocrats) and the "rule of reason" (a.k.a. Coddle the Monopolies, Break the Unions). Very rarely has the Supreme Court featured a true populist liberal among its ranks. As far as I can tell, only William Rufus Day (a cipher) and Louis D. Brandeis (a genius) pitched themselves as populists during confirmation, and then behaved as populists on the bench.

Pay particular attention to the fascinating entry on James C. McReynolds. He was the most despicable Supreme Court Justice ever, a Lionel-Barrymore-looking Scrooge who hated blacks, Jews, and women, yet his opinion in Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) -- protecting a vigorous right to a variety of liberties and strenuously opposing state police power -- is often cited as precedent for recent right-to-privacy decisions such as Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade. That in itself is unusual, but even weirder is the curious adoption by this longtime misanthropic bachelor of 33 British war children during WWII. Now that's gossip!

Oh also, the very long entry on Clarence Thomas succeeds in portraying him as a bizarre ideologue (or idiot) who wishes to overturn two hundred years of precedent -- he even wishes to rethink the John Jay court's decision Calder v. Bull, from 1798! The entry's conclusion is generous: "Whether he will be remembered as a prophet or a crank is for the future to determine."

Anyway, a fascinating encyclopedia, essential reading now that the Court seems to be going around the bend again.