By: Cass R. Sunstein
Radicals in Robes, by Cass R. Sunstein, pulls away the veil of rhetoric from a dangerous and radical right-wing movement and issues a strong warning about what conservatives really intend to do to America. One of the most respected legal theorists in the country, Sunstein explains how the right-wing restoration of their 'constitutional vision', would endanger environmental regulations, campaign finance laws, and the right to privacy. It would threaten the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, and many other federal agencies. It could allow states to establish official religions. It would impose sharp new limits on Congress's authority to protect rights.
Radicals in Robes, by Cass R. Sunstein (Purchase)
Sep 6, 2005
Hardcover
US $26.00
CAN $36.95
UK £15.50
0465083269
Published by Basic Books
Editorial Reviews
According to legal scholar Cass Sunstein, it is not enough to label judges as "liberal" or "conservative" or any other ideological stripe; one must also take into account their approach to constitutional interpretation. In Radicals in Robes: Why Extreme Right-Wing Courts Are Wrong for America, he outlines four approaches that have long dominated constitutional debate--perfectionism, majoritarianism, minimalism, and fundamentalism--and argues for minimalism and against fundamentalism (perfectionism and majoritarianism are given less attention since they have largely fallen out of favor in recent decades). Minimalists believe in narrow, incremental decisions rather than broad rulings. They respect precedent, recognize the limited role of the judiciary, and "seek outcomes on which people with varying views can agree." Fundamentalists believe the Constitution must be interpreted according to "original understanding," or precisely what was meant at the time of ratification. "In the abstract, fundamentalism appears both principled and neutral. But too much of the time, fundamentalists offer an unmistakably partisan vision of the Constitution," he asserts. Though he acknowledges that fundamentalism can sometimes be reasonable, the risks of abuse are too great, leading him to conclude that the approach is "destructive and pernicious" because it leads to less freedom for Americans. In practice, for instance, it could ban the sale of contraceptives, invalidate most environmental regulations, allow discrimination on the basis of race and sex, allow states to establish official churches, and overturn even modest gun control laws.
Though they claim a devotion to history, Sunstein believes fundamentalists are "seeking to produce a federal judiciary that operates as an arm of the political branches." In making this point, Sunstein shows how "judicial activism" by extreme conservative judges has been on the rise since the Reagan administration, moving the Supreme Court hard to the right in the process. He discusses the implications of this shift on issues such as the right to privacy, marriage, affirmative action, national security, the separation of powers, gun control, and religion in public life, among others. In Radicals in Robes, Sunstein skillfully outlines complex constitutional issues in clear language, making this a useful and thought-provoking book for lay readers and legal experts alike. --Shawn Carkonen
From Publishers Weekly
In this timely and keen analysis of how judges interpret the Constitution today, Sunstein, a University of Chicago law professor and New Republic contributor, espouses what he calls a "minimalist" approach that respects precedent and takes only small-scale steps forward, and lashes out at the "fundamentalism" practiced by extreme conservative judges. Legal fundamentalists profess to base their interpretations on the meanings ascribed to the Constitution by the original ratifiers. But in many respects, Sunstein says, fundamentalists ignore, or misread, the history they claim to venerate. Further, he says many fundamentalist positions would undermine liberties Americans have come to value—rights that one fundamentalist judge, offering the example of the right to privacy, says were created out of whole cloth by the Supreme Court. For Sunstein, capitulation to the fundamentalists could lead to state (but not federal) establishment of religion, to the elimination of a protected right to privacy and to invalidation of most environmental regulations. We should be skeptical, the author insists, when political ideology seems to dictate judges' constitutional doctrine. This compressed book covers all the hot-button constitutional issues in 10 short, plainly written chapters. Americans monitoring the upcoming Senate deliberations over Bush's nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court will want to bear in mind the arguments Sunstein so trenchantly presents.
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Book Description
Even with the recent changes in its makeup, most people think the Supreme Court is roughly balanced between left and right. This is a myth. In fact the justices once considered right-wing are now the Court's moderates; those who were once centrists are now the Court's "liberals"; and the liberal element, once represented by Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan, has all but disappeared.
Many people also think that judicial activism is the province of liberals. This is also a myth; since William Rehnquist was confirmed as Chief Justice in 1986, the Supreme Court has struck down decisions of Congress more than thirty times-an unprecedented record of judicial activism. Some conservatives want to return to the eighteenth-century Constitution or to restore "the Constitution in Exile," by which they mean the Constitution as it existed before the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In Radicals in Robes, Cass R. Sunstein explains what this constitutional vision would mean. It would endanger environmental regulations, campaign finance laws, and the right to privacy. It would threaten the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, and many other federal agencies. It might well allow states to establish official religions. It would impose sharp new limits on Congress's authority to protect rights.
Radicals in Robes pulls away the veil of rhetoric from a dangerous and radical movement and issues a strong and passionate warning about what some extremists really intend. One of the most respected legal theorists in the country, Sunstein here issues a warning of compelling concern to us all.
From the Back Cover
Advance Praise for Radicals in Robes
"Radicals in Robes explains why it is important to prevent the right-wing takeover of the federal judiciary. Cass Sunstein embeds his argument within a more general theory of judicial 'minimalism' that would limit the further politicization of judicial appointments. It is an important argument, and he presents it well." -- Sanford Levinson, author of Wrestling with Diversity
"In an angry age too easily seduced by partisan aggressiveness and simple-minded slogans, Cass R. Sunstein, one of our country's finest legal scholars, argues for a constitutional law based on common sense, patience, modesty, and restraint. These are virtues we need now more than ever." -- Jack M. Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School, author of The Laws of Change
"This book clarifies the stakes in current struggles over the role of courts in American democracy. For all those seeking a path between the extremes of old judicial liberalism and the new 'fundamentalist' counterrevolution, Cass R. Sunstein offers one here, and he does so with the energy, clarity, and scholarly commitment for which he has become so widely known." -- Richard Pildes, Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law, NYU School of Law
About the Author
Cass R. Sunstein is Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School, a contributing editor at the New Republic and the American Prospect, and a contributor as well to such publications as the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is the author of numerous books, including Republic.com, Risk and Reason, Laws of Fear, and The Second Bill of Rights. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.
