Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T00:06:55.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Explaining the Burger Court's Support for Civil Liberties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2022

Lawrence Baum
Lawrence Baum*
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

For eighteen years, Supreme Court watchers have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Under Chief Justice Earl Warren in the 1960s, the Court expanded legal protections for civil liberties far more than it had in any previous period. After Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, many observers expected that his appointments would move the Court away from its commitment to civil liberties. When Nixon was able to appoint four new justices in his first three years in office, that expectation was strengthened. Since that time, each presidential election victory and each Supreme Court appointment by a conservative Republican has led to new hopes and fears that the Cout would abandon its strong support for civil liberties.

To a degree, these expectations already have been realized. Without doubt, the Supreme Court under Warren Burger was less supportive of civil liberties than it had been under Earl Warren. But it did not take the clear conservative position that many Court watchers had anticipated. Reflecting their surprise, a 1983 book about the Burger Court was subtitled, “The Counter-Revolution That Wasn't” (Blasi, 1983).

Type
Articles
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , Winter 1987 , pp. 21 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blasi, Vincent, ed. 1983. The Burger Court: The Counter-Revolution That Wasn't. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Congressional Research Service. 1973, 1982 (supplement). The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Gest, Ted. 1986. Reagan's Court: Two Steps to the Right. U.S. News & World Report, June 30, pp. 16–19.Google Scholar
Jenkins, John A. 1983. A Candid Talk with Justice Blackmun. New York Times Magazine, February 20, pp. 20–29, 57–66.Google Scholar
Kamen, AI. 1986. Chief Justice Burger Retiring From High Court. Washington Post, June 18, pp. A1, A14.Google Scholar
Lusky, Louis. 1982. Footnote Redux: A Carolene Products Reminiscence. Columbia Law Review, 82 (October), 1093–1109.10.2307/1122160CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maltz, Earl M. 1980. Some Thoughts on the Death of Stare Decisis in Constitutional Law. Wisconsin Law Review, pp. 467–496.Google Scholar
Pacelle, Richard. 1986. The Supreme Court Agenda Across Time: Toward a Theory of Agenda-Building. Paper delivered at meetings of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April 9–11.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Martin. 1978. The Supreme Court: From Warren to Burger. In The New American Political System, ed. by King, Anthony, pp. 179–211. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute.Google Scholar