Synopses & Reviews
Liberals have acclaimed, and conservatives decried, reliance on courts as tools for changes. But while debate rages over whether the courts
should be playing such a legislative role, Gerald N. Rosenberg poses a far more fundamental question—
can courts produce political and social reform?
Rosenberg presents, with remarkable skill, an overwhelming case that efforts to use the courts to generate significant reforms in civil rights, abortion, and women's rights were largely failures.
"The real strength of The Hollow Hope . . . is its resuscitation of American Politics—the old-fashioned representative kind—as a valid instrument of social change. Indeed, the flip side of Mr. Rosenberg's argument that courts don't do all that much is the refreshing view that politics in the best sense of the word—as deliberation and choice over economic and social changes, as well as over moral issues—is still the core of what makes America the great nation it is. . . . A book worth reading."—Gary L. McDowell, The Washington Times
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 367-414) and index.
Table of Contents
List of Tables and Figures
Preface
Introduction
1. The Dynamic and the Constrained Court
Part 1: Civil Rights
Introduction
2. Bound for Glory? Brown and the Civil Rights Revolution
3. Constraints, Conditions, and the Courts
4. Planting the Seeds of Progress?
5. The Current of History
Part 2: Abortion and Women's Rights
Introduction
6. Transforming Women's Lives? The Courts and Abortion
7. Liberating Women? The Courts and Women's Rights
8. The Court as Catalyst?
9. The Tide of History
Part 3: The Environment, Reapportionment, and Criminal Law
Introduction
10. Cleaning House? The Courts, the Environment, and Reapportionment
11. Judicial Revolution? Litigation to Reform the Criminal Law
12. Conclusion: The Fly-Paper Court
Appendices
1. Black Children in Elementary and Secondary School with Whites: 1954-72
2. Blacks at Predominantly White Public Colleges and Universities
3. Black Voter Registration in the Southern States: Pre- and Post-Voting Rights Act
4. Laws and Actions Designed to Preserve Segregation
5. Method for Obtaining Information for Table 4.1 and Figure 4.1
6. Illegal Abortions
7. Method for Obtaining Information for Tables 8.1A, 8.1B, 8.2A, and 8.2B, and for Figures 8.1 and 8.2
Case References
References
Index