Abstracts

• DOI: 10.1177/106591298704000302
• Published date: 01 September 1987
• Date: 01 September 1987
• Subject Matter: Articles

ABSTRACTS
JUDICIAL REVIEW AND DEMOCRATIC THEORY. By Leslie F. Goldstein.
This essay elaborates and critiques two different defenses of unwritten law judicial re-
view now prevalent in the public law literature: (1) defense on the basis of a historic judicial
tradition, and (2) defense on the basis of moral/political theory. The article asserts that the
choice between unwritten law judicial review and textual judicial review ultimately must
be based on normative political theory. It proceeds to criticize unwritten law judicial review
both on the basis of probable original intent and on the basis of normative political theory.
In the course of this critique, the essay elaborates a variety of ways in which contemporary
Americans do have opportunities to express consent or non-consent to the rules of the con-
stitutional text as interpreted by the Supreme Court.
THE BURGER COURT
AND
THE PRIMACY
OF POLITICAL EXPRESSION. By Edward V. Heck and Albert
C. Ringelstein.
In New York Times v. Sullivan (1964), the Warren Court endorsed the proposition that
the &dquo;central meaning&dquo; of the First Amendment is the protection of political speech. This
article examines the record of the Burger Court in freedom of expression cases and tests
the hypothesis that the Burger Court collectively and the justices individually have adhered
to the notion of the primacy of political speech in First Amendment cases. Although the
justices have frequently invoked the rhetoric of the central meaning of the First Amendment
in their opinions, an analysis of votes and outcomes in 204 freedom of expression cases rev-
eals only limited support for this hypothesis.
HOMOSEXUALS AND THE Ku KLUX KLAN: A
CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL TOLERANCE. By
James L. Gibson.
This article reports the results of a study of political tolerance within a civil liberties dis-
pute over the rights of the Ku Klux Klan. During the summer of 1984, the Ku Klux Klan
held a &dquo;Death to Homosexuals&dquo;...