Synopses & Reviews
Since 1947 a modernized New Jersey Supreme Court has played an important and controversial role in the state, nation, and world. Its decisions in cutting-edge cases have confronted society’s toughest issues, reflecting changing social attitudes, modern life’s complexities, and new technologies.
Paul Tractenberg has selected ten of the court’s landmark decisions between 1960 and 2011 to illustrate its extensive involvement in major public issues, and to assess its impact. Each case chapter is authored by a distinguished academic or professional expert, several of whom were deeply involved in the cases’ litigation, enabling them to provide special insights. An overview chapter provides context for the court’s distinctive activity.
Many of the cases are so widely known that they have become part of the national conversation about law and policy. In the Karen Ann Quinlan decision, the court determined the right of privacy extends to refusing life-sustaining treatment. The Baby M case reined in surrogate parenting and focused on the child’s best interests. In the Mount Laurel decision, the court sought to increase affordable housing for low- and moderate-income residents throughout the state. The Megan’s Law case upheld legal regulation of sex offender community notification. A series of decisions known as Abbott/Robinson required the state to fund poor urban school districts at least on par with suburban districts.
Other less well known cases still have great public importance. Henningsen v. Bloomfield Motors reshaped product liability and tort law to protect consumers injured by defective cars; State v. Hunt shielded privacy rights from unwarranted searches beyond federal standards; Lehmann v. Toys ‘R’ Us protected employees from sexual harassment and a hostile work environment; Right to Choose v. Byrne expanded state constitutional abortion rights beyond the federal constitution; and Marini v. Ireland protected low-income tenants against removal from their homes.
For some observers, the New Jersey Supreme Court represents the worst of judicial activism; others laud it for being, in its words, “the designated last-resort guarantor of the Constitution's command.” For Tractenberg, the court’s activism means it tends to find for the less powerful over the more powerful and for the public good against private interests, an approach he applauds.
Review
A wellûwritten, exhaustively researched account of the legal battle to open New JerseyÆs suburbs to the poor . . . The authors actually took the time to talk to the lawyers and litigants on both sides of the controversy. Their chronicle of the legal developments is informed, and much improved, by the fleshûandûblood stories of those who actually lived the case. . . . a cautionary and inspiring tale. Philadelphia Inquirer
Review
This book is both an inspiring account of public interest law at its best and a sobering assessment of how æthe soul of suburbiaæ continues to resist social justice. . . . an unexpectedly moving account of hope, idealism, and intelligence. New York Times Book Review
Review
The authors of Our Town in particular enable readers to see historical continuity and discontinuity in legal and popular discussions of race, racism, and housing patterns in American society. Our Town also explores the challenges to public policy raised by the existence of residential segregation patterns. Nation
Synopsis
An account of the legal battle to open up New Jersey's suburbs to the poor, looking at the views of lawyers on both sides of the controversy. It is a case study of judicial activism and its consequences and an analysis of suburban attitudes regarding race, class and property.
Synopsis
A case study of judicial activism and its consequences and as a detailed analysis of suburban attitudes regarding race, class, and property.
Synopsis
Ten cases decided between 1960 and 2011, including the Karen Ann Quinlan decision, the Baby M case, the Mount Laurel decision, Megan’s Law, and the series of decisions known as Abbott/Robinson that directed state funding of poor urban schools on par with suburban districts, shed light on landmark decisions and their impact on national and global events. Different experts cover each case, providing insight into the court’s approach and decision-making process.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-259) and index.
About the Author
DAVID L. KIRP, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of Just Schools: Race and Schooling in America, Gender Justice, and Learning by Heart: AIDS and Schoolchildren in America's Communities (Rutgers University Press), and a regular contributor to Harper's, The Nation, the Atlantic Monthly, and the New York Times.
JOHN P. DWYER , John H. Boalt professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, is a nationally recognized authority on environmental law and housing policy and law.
LARRY A. ROSENTHAL is an attorney and has served as a lecturer in the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and assistant editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.