Third Branch Of Government

This book explores the politic. of judicial review in America since 1937. In choosing to portray this aspect of our constitutional process, and to do so through a set of eight depth-studies of leading cases, the editors have made two basic assumptions that ought to be set out in advance to guide the reader. Summarized briefly, these assumptions are:
(1) The year 1937 marks a major divide in the constitutional jurisprudence of the American nation and in the decisional philosophy of the Supreme Court. This is so much the fact that future histories of the Supreme Court may very well divide the Court's development since 1790 into two fundamental periods, pre and post-1937.
(2) Students who are limited solely to the edited opinions of Supreme Court Justices and expert commentary on those opinions will not be able to obtain a clear image of this modern Court and its role in the American political process. To opinions and commentary must be added materials that trace constitutional disputes from their beginnings in a corporate executive suite, sheriff's office, city council, or Congressional investigation, to their point of decision by the Supreme Court, and then out again into the political process.