Courts, Judges, and Politics - An Introduction to the Judicial Process, Fourth Edition

• NCJ Number: 103807
• Author(s): W F Murphy; C H Pritchett
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 671 pages
• Sale Source: Random House
• Publication Type: Overview Text
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This collection of readings and cases is designed to illustrate the processes by which judges, especially the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, play policymaking roles.

Abstract

Part 1 introduces the ways in which the judiciary takes part in the resolution of social conflicts. Part 2 deals with the organization and staffing of the Federal courts. Part 3 examines judicial power in terms of access to power, instruments of power, and the limitations of that power. Part 4 examines the distinctive methods that characterize judicial decisionmaking, and Part 5 presents analyses of the proper functions of judges in a constitutional democracy. Authors include numerous contemporary judges as well as Sir William Blackstone; Alexander Hamilton; Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.; Benjamin Cardozo; and Alexis de Tocqueville. Footnotes; subject and case indexes. (Editor summary modified)