Book Reviews

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ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE BURGER COURT: THE ASCENT OF PRAGMATISM*

Reviewed by William S. Fields"

Bernard Schnartr, the Edwin D. \Yeebb Professor of Law at Iiew York Unitervtg. is an internationally renowned constituaonal historian whose multi-volume works on the United States Constnution and the Bill of Rights are regularlg used by students, scholars. lawyers, and jurists. Professor Schwartz is, however, more than just a legal scholar. He LS an author mth the ability to present a complex subject, like Amencan constitutional iaw, in a way that ii understand-able to the axerage educated indiiidual

In his recent work, The Ascmt ojpvagmatism. Professor Schwartz reviews and analyzes the operation of the Supreme Court during the seventeen years that Wrren E. Burger served as Chief Justice. Although he discusses the mqar rulings of the era in considerable detail, his main focus 1s on the Supreme Court as an institution and the way in which it reached its decisions Professor Schwartz analogms the Court to a tapestry made up of strands that have been interwoven into a pattern He purposely seeks to avoid separating out strands and looking at them alone. This he sees as defacing the tapestry as a whole and @ring a false value to the mdiwdual strands. His analytical approach is intertwined with his view of the Court as "primanly a political institution'' whose purpose 1s to "vindicate individual rights. strike down law that are unconstitutional. and arbitrate between the states and the federal government and between the different branches of the federal government.''

To accomphsh hi, objective. Professor Schwartz relies upon a multitude of both oral and documentary sources HE oral sources

' Bernard bchaarfz nis Asbent oJF7aymntimn-nir Burgn Court inAciion Nea lark Addison iYerle) Publishing Campani, Inc I990 Wges x 182 Price S24 96(hardcover1 Chronology, Yofei "able of Cares, and lnder

Rei 227 (19901 (with 3) Llember of the Bar of i

MILIT.4RY LAW REVIEW [Vol 149

include personal mtewiews of members of the Cauit former law clerks. and other knowledgeable individuals His docurnentar! sources (most of which have never been published) include con-ference notes. docket books, correspondence, notes. memoranda and draft opinions. He makes reference to this vast quantit! of material in a iva? that allows readers to understand and to examine for themselves the underlying bases for the conclusions that he draxa The end result 1s an interesting and...