Book Reviews : Law Writers and the Courts. By CLYDE E. JACOBS. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1954. Pp. x, 223. $3.50.)
| Author | E.V. Walter |
| Date | 01 March 1956 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591295600900150 |
| Published date | 01 March 1956 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
220
proper
circumstances,
to
plead
the
Fifth
Amendment
is
an
important
civil
liberty
which
must
be
preserved,
but
save
in
rare
exceptions
the
resort
to
it
in
official
inquiry
is
the
last
way
to
defend
the
right
’to
know,
to
utter,
and
argue
freely
according
to
conscience.’
In
a
country
addicted
to
public
speech,
exercise
of
the
right
not
to
declare
your
deepest
convictions
and
most
cherished
associations
is
no
mark
of
the
good
citizen
Furthermore,
the
liberals
tend
to
exaggerate
the
dangers
which
they
might
incur
by
standing
up
for
their
principles.
Although
Mr.
Thomas
does
not
deny
that
&dquo;these
are
hard
days
for
speakers
who
are
not
con-
formists&dquo;
and
that
&dquo;hence,
too,
many
conform
or
keep
silent,&dquo;
he
thinks
that
the
liberals
exaggerate
the
dangers
which
face
them.
Thomas
perhaps
underestimates
the
difficulties
which
face
liberal
pro-
fessors
and
other
intellectuals.
After
all,
he
is
Norman
Thomas.
He
is
respected
and
almost
respectable.
Speaking
out
does
not
endanger
his
liv-
ing
or
his
family.
However,
there
is
much
truth
in
what
he
says
and
liberty
might
not
be
in
such
danger
if
its
defenders
had
a
clearer
idea
of
what
it
was
they
were
defending
and
were
more
courageous
in
defending
it.
Rutgers
University.
ROBERT
J.
ALEXANDER.
Law
Writers
and
the
Courts.
By
CLYDE
E.
JACOBS.
(Berkeley
and
Los
Angeles:
University
of
California
Press.
1954.
Pp.
x,
223.
$3.50.)
This
study
demonstrates
that
three
publicists,
Thomas
M.
Cooley,
Christopher
G.
Tiedeman
and
John
F.
Dillon,
writing
in
the
post-Civil
War
period,
played
a
significant
part
in
the
development
of
certain
constitutional
principles.
The
author
argues
persuasively
that
they
served
the
cause
of
industrial
capitalism
by
helping
to
translate
laissez-faire
politics
into
con-
stitutional
principles
and
practices.
To
limit
the
police
power
of
the
states
and
the
commerce
power
of
the
national
government,
Cooley
and
Tiedeman
made
use
of
the
liberty-of-
contract
principle.
Likewise,
to
restrict
the
taxing
and
spending
authority
of
state
and
local
governments,
Cooley
and
Dillon
helped
fashion
the
public-purpose
maxim.
Both
rules,
transmitted
to
bench
and
bar
by
the
texts
of
these
writers,
were
to
become
effective
instruments
in
the
hands
of
the
conservatives,
who
feared
the
implications
of
Jacksonian
democracy.
Constitutional
principles
that
hemmed
in
the
legislative
power
also
in-
creased
the
power
the
judiciary
and
helped
create
the
aristocracy
of
the
robe,
which
became
the
chief
defender
of
the
industrial
oligarchs.
The
ideology
of
the
latter
as
well
as
the
judicial
application
of
the
Fifth
and
Fourteenth
Amendments
helped
construct
a
laissez-f aire
constitutional
order
around
an
inflated
conception
of
property.
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