Book Review: A Vital National Seminar: The Supreme Court in American Political Life, Constitutional Counter-Revolution? The Warren Court and the Burger Court: Judicial Policy Making in Modern America

• Author: Charles M. Lamb
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591297903200226
• Published date: 01 June 1979
• Date: 01 June 1979
• Subject Matter: Book Review

Book

Reviews and Notes

237

sociologist Jack Ladinsky, the thirty-one contributors are historians, law school

professors,

or

attorneys. Even Ulmer‘s article

-

a

revealing account

of

the part

played by Chief Justice Earl IVarren in

Brown

v.

Board

of

Education

which ap-

peared first in

The

Journal

of

Politics

in 1971 -is quite traditional.

The essays are arranged in chronological subject order proceeding from studies

in colonial law, the American Revolution, slavery and the Civil IVar, Reconstruc-

tion, and Progressivism, to the welfare state and the contemporary legal order.

Through the variety of topics selected, the editors have the stated purpose of em-

phasizing how “law works its influence in every corner of social life in ways that

prove, in the long run, decisive.”

Scheiber’s essay, published here for the first time, is entitled “Federalism and

the Constitution: The Original Understanding.” He contends that most past

studies have devoted too much attention to the “intri,gues and compromises” of the

Constitutional Convention, and have thereby lost sight of the basic principles and

understanding

of

the founders. Scheiber avoids such supposed distractions in

dis-

cussing the construction of the “compound” system which we now see

as

federalism.

He points out both the common commitment of Federalists and Antifederalists to

the principles of libertarian republican government and their basic differences

as

to the proper structure and goal of government. Particular attention is devoted to

the contributions

of

Madison and Hamilton who, althoush fellow Federalists, held

quite different ideas

as

to

how

best to bring about and maintain

a

viable representa-

tive government

-

a

problem that has never ceased to trouble their successors.

There is no bibliopiphy, but the footnotes associated with the articles when

first published are extensive, constituting eighty-six pages of the volume. A help-

ful,

if brief, list of books for further reading follows each of the major divisions.

Although authors

or

editors

of

earlier works on American law may well take ex-

ception to the rather ambitious claim which appears on the dust jacket that the

book presents the “first comprehensive overview

of

American industry and consti-

tutional development,” it is

a

worthwhile addition to the literature in that it gives

wider exposure to the earlier efforts of experts

in

legal

and constitutional history.

ROBERT

T.

MILLER

Bnylor University

A

Vital National Seminar: The Supreme Court in American Political Life.

By

RICHARD FUNSTON.

(Palo

Alto, Calif.

:

hlayfield Publishing Company, 1978.

Pp.

mi,

226.

$5.95.)

Constitutional Counter-Revobition? The Warren Court

and

the Burger

Court:

Judicial Policy

Making

in Modern America.

By RICHARD

Y.

FUNSTON.

(Cam-

bridge,

Mass.:

Schenkman Publishing Company, 1977.

Pp.

xiii,

399.

$17.50.)

Students of American government and constitutional law should be aware of

two recent books flowing from Richard Funston’s prolific pen.

A

Vital ATational

Seminar

addresses the relationship between the United States Supreme Court and

the Constitution, political change, the presidency, Congress, the states, and indi-

vidual rights.

Constitutional Counter-Revolution

is more directed toward IVarren

Court and Burger Court policy in the areas

of

civil rights, reapportionment, crimi-

nal procedure, establishment of religion, and obscenity.

There

is,

however, more overlap between the books than one might detect by

scanning them. For example, both books discuss the educational role of the

Su-

preme Court in American government. They both urge the need for “legal logic,”

“craftsmanship,” and “principle” in Supreme Court opinions. They both analyze

the relationship between Supreme Court decision making trends and electoral re-

alignment. And they both touch upon key decisions of the Warren and Burger

Courts. Obviously it would be inappropriate to adopt both books for the same

course.

A

Vital

hTational Seminar

is most useful

as

a

secondary text for an intro-

ductory American government class.

Constitutional Counter-Revolution,

on the

other hand, is more advanced and analytical, making it

a

good supplementary text

for undergraduate

or

graduate constitutional law courses that devote substantial

attention to Supreme Court policymaking trends since Earl Warren’s appointment.