When Labels Fail

WHEN LABELS FAIL: A PARADOXICAL VIEW OF THE SUPREME COURT "I'm not big on labels," replied retiring Associate Justice John Paul Stevens during a recent interview concerning changing blocs on the Supreme Court. "I don't use labels to describe what I do" is how Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor responded during her confirmation hearing when a senator sought to categorize her judicial philosophy. Simplistic labels for the justices have repeatedly eluded Presidents, Senators, lawyers, and pundits with regard to the performance of justices on the Supreme Court. Despite their best efforts to predict behavior of nominees for the Court, the justices defied political categorization, such as the Virginia lawyer who lost his states' rights case before the Supreme Court, but went on to support Federalist Party causes as Chief Justice; the ex-Federalist Party politician and Secretary of the Treasury who as Chief Justice strongly supported states' rights; the esteemed Massachusetts justice who outraged the progressive president who nominated him to the Court by voting to strike down key anti-trust legislation; the cofounder of the American Civil Liberties Union who shocked former colleagues by consistently voting to curtail civil liberties and civil rights in cases before the Court; the staunch New Deal supporter who over his long tenure on the Court came to favor individual rights and liberties over governmental power; the former Ku Klux Klan member who helped forge a unanimous Court ruling in the seminal decision against racial segregation; appointed by a liberal Democratic president, the justice who steadfastly supported law and order, the right to life, and other conservative causes; an originalist whose conservative methodology frequently leads to liberal results. This book explores the origin of the separation of powers doctrine, how the Constitution created a judiciary designed to stand apart from the "political" branches of government, and how justices have asserted independence as a third branch of government from John Jay to John Roberts. For more information, go to www.supremecourtpolitics.com