Supremely Partisan

Supremely Partisan PDF Author: James D. Zirin
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442266376
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
On the eve of a presidential election that may determine the makeup of Supreme Court justices for decades to come, prominent attorney James D. Zirin argues that the Court has become increasingly partisan, rapidly making policy choices right and left on bases that have nothing to do with law or the Constitution. Zirin explains how we arrived at the present situation and looks at the current divide through its leading partisans, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor on the left and Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas on the right. He also examines four of the Court’s most controversial recent decisions – Hobby Lobby, Obamacare, gay marriage, and capital punishment – arguing that these politicized decisions threaten to undermine public confidence in the Supreme Court.

Supremely Partisan

Supremely Partisan PDF Author: James D. Zirin
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442266376
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
On the eve of a presidential election that may determine the makeup of Supreme Court justices for decades to come, prominent attorney James D. Zirin argues that the Court has become increasingly partisan, rapidly making policy choices right and left on bases that have nothing to do with law or the Constitution. Zirin explains how we arrived at the present situation and looks at the current divide through its leading partisans, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor on the left and Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas on the right. He also examines four of the Court’s most controversial recent decisions – Hobby Lobby, Obamacare, gay marriage, and capital punishment – arguing that these politicized decisions threaten to undermine public confidence in the Supreme Court.

Plaintiff in Chief

Plaintiff in Chief PDF Author: James D. Zirin
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1250201632
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
A comprehensive analysis of Donald Trump's legal history reveals his temperament, methods, character, and morality. Unlike all previous presidents who held distinguished positions in government or the military prior to entering office, Donald Trump's political worldview was molded in the courtroom. He sees law not as a system of rules to be obeyed and ethical ideals to be respected, but as a weapon to be used against his adversaries or a hurdle to be sidestepped when it gets in his way. He has weaponized the justice system throughout his career, and he has continued to use these backhanded tactics as Plaintiff in Chief. In this book, distinguished New York attorney James D. Zirin presents Trump's lengthy litigation history as an indication of his character and morality, and his findings are chilling: if you partner with Donald Trump, you will probably wind up litigating with him. If you enroll in his university or buy one of his apartments, chances are you will want your money back. If you are a woman and you get too close to him, you may need to watch your back. If you try to sue him, he's likely to defame you. If you make a deal with him, you had better get it in writing. If you are a lawyer, an architect, or even his dentist, you'd better get paid up front. If you venture an opinion that publicly criticizes him, you may be sued for libel. A window into the president's dark legal history, Plaintiff in Chief is as informative as it is disturbing.

In Defense of the United States Constitution

In Defense of the United States Constitution PDF Author: Robert S. Singh
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351117688
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
Constitutional reform is a topic of perennial academic debate, perhaps now more than ever amid sharp polarization in the electorate and government. At once a cogent, new contribution to the scholarly literature and appropriate for American politics and government students, this book mounts a provocative, nonideological defense of the US Constitution, directly engaging proposals for reform and providing a rare systematic argument for continuity: Our politics may be broken but our system is not. Writing from an international perspective with an array of fascinating data, the author draws on theory, law, and history to defend the republican order under political stress and intellectual challenge.

The United States Supreme Court and Politics

The United States Supreme Court and Politics PDF Author: Justin P. DePlato
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498512194
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 103

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Book Description
While common-sense attitudes towards the United States Supreme Court have been focused on what decisions they are likely to make, this book aims to focus on the impacts of other politicized elements of the Court. Through statistical modeling and other quantitative analyses, Justin DePlato examines the ability of the presidency and the Senate to influence and shape policy through the Court’s nomination process, docket selection, and judicial retirements. The Court operating as a political institution threatens to affect, where it hasn’t already outright intervened, civil liberties and social issues in the modern era and represents a controversial mechanic in the workings of American statecraft.

To Set at Liberty

To Set at Liberty PDF Author: Delwin Brown
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1610974468
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description
""The greatest event in twentieth-century church history was the Second Vatican Council. The greatest achievement, which this event has made possible, is the liberation theology and praxis of Latin America. In this event and in this achievement freedom has won a great victory. ""The consequences of this victory have been almost as important for Protestants as for Catholics. Indeed they have included the destruction of the great wall that separated these two communities for so long. For a while this seemed to render Catholic thought highly dependent upon the last two centuries of Protestant theological development. But the actual result is that the great initiatives of the global Christian movement are now in the hands of Catholics. In so far as there is a center for the theology of the Protestant/Orthodox World Council of Churches, that center is constituted by the primarily Catholic theology of liberation. ""Sadly, however, we must recognize that while liberation theology advances in the Third World, First World churches are drawing back from their supportive interest. This is equally true of Catholics and Protestants, of Germans sand North Americans. Churches in the First World are attending to increasing demands of their more conservative constituencies and seem less and less able to adopt positions that transcend economic and national interests, It seems all too likely that in the eighties a politicized Third World Christianity will confront a First World church concerned for other-worldly salvation and peace of mind and whose political dimension is exhausted by its nostalgia for an older morality and its sanctification of existing structures of power . . . ""Brown's book makes evident how natural it is for North American theologians to share in the themes of liberation theology. Karl Barth astutely observed that when the. United States produced its own theology, this should be a theology of freedom. To Set at Liberty is just such a theology of freedom . . . ""One of the most important lessons the Latin Americans have to teach us is that improved understanding by itself will not go far to produce those changes in United States policy, our church life, or personal life-styles which must occur before our national role ceases to block the movement of political liberation in Latin America And elsewhere. The message of liberation theology is that doctrines developed outside the matrix of practice are likely to have too little effect upon practice. Process theology must learn this lesson too. But meanwhile we can be grateful that Brown has done much to pave the way to partnership between one strand of North American theology and the great movement of Latin American theology."" from the Foreword by John B. Cobb, Jr. Delwin Brown (1935-2009) was Dean Emeritus of the Pacific School of Religion. He also served as Harvey H. Pontoff Professor of Christian Theology at Iliff School of Theology and taught at Arizona State University. His previous work has appeared in such journals as Religious Studies, Process Studies, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and Evangelische Kommentare.

Dred Scott and the Dangers of a Political Court

Dred Scott and the Dangers of a Political Court PDF Author: Ethan Greenberg
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739137603
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
The Dred Scott decision of 1857 is widely (and correctly) regarded as the very worst in the long history of the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision held that no African American could ever be a U.S. citizen and declared that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional and void. The decision thus appeared to promise that slavery would be forever protected in the great American West. Prompting mass outrage, the decision was a crucial step on the road that led to the Civil War. Dred Scott and the Dangers of a Political Court traces the history of the case and tells the story of many of the key people involved, including Dred and Harriet Scott, President James Buchanan, Chief Justice Roger Taney, and Abraham Lincoln. The book also examines in some detail each of the nine separate Opinions written by the Court's Justices, connecting each with the respective Justices' past views on slavery and the law. That examination demonstrates that the majority Justices were willing to embrace virtually any flimsy legal argument they could find at hand in an effort to justify the pro-slavery result they had predetermined. Many modern commentators view the case chiefly in relation to Roe v Wade and related controversies in modern constitutional law: some conservative critics attempt to argue that Dred Scott exemplifies 'aspirationalism' or 'judicial activism' gone wrong; some liberal critics in turn try to argue that Dred Scott instead represents 'originalism' or 'strict constructionism' run amok. Here, Judge Ethan Greenberg demonstrates that none of these modern critiques has much merit. The Dred Scott case was not about constitutional methodology, but chiefly about slavery, and about how very far the Dred Scott Court was willing to go to protect the political interests of the slave-holding South. The decision was wrong because the Court subordinated law and intellectual honesty to politics. The case thus exemplifies the dangers of a political Court.

Broken

Broken PDF Author: Ira Shapiro
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538105837
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
While the hyper-partisanship in Washington that has stunned the world has been building for decades, Ira Shapiro argues that the U.S. Senate has suffered most acutely from the loss of its political center. In Broken, Ira Shapiro, a former senior Senate staffer and author of the critically-acclaimed book The Last Great Senate, offers an expert’s account of some of the most prominent battles of the past decade and lays out what must be done to restore the Senate’s lost luster. Shapiro places the Senate at “ground zero for America’s political dysfunction”--the institution that has failed the longest and the worst. Because the Senate, at its best, represented the special place where the Democrats and Republicans worked together to transcend ideological and regional differences and find common ground, its decline has intensified the nation’s polarization, by institutionalizing it at the highest level. Shapiro documents this decline and evaluates the prospects of restoration that could provide a way out of the polarized morass that has engulfed Congress. With a narrative that runs right through the first year of the Trump presidency, Broken will be essential reading for all concerned about the state of American politics and the future of our country.

God’s Watchman

God’s Watchman PDF Author: Richard G. Kyle
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1630873241
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
John Knox ranks among the great leaders of the Reformed tradition. In particular, he made significant contributions to this movement as it unfolded in Scotland. In doing so, Knox wore many hats--prophet, pastor, preacher, reformer, statesman, revolutionary, and more. God's Watchman: John Knox's Faith and Vocation attempts to connect these aspects of Knox's life. Being a man of action, these roles come to the forefront. Still, they rest on a particular faith shaped by his interpretation of Scripture, his view of God, and the events of sixteenth-century Europe. Section one of this study establishes these beliefs. Part two spells out his vocation--namely, functioning as a prophet, pastor, and preacher. All of this--his faith and vocation--culminated in his revolutionary political ideas, which are the subject of section three.

Democratic Disunity

Democratic Disunity PDF Author: Colleen Elizabeth Kelley
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793639868
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Democratic Disunity: Rhetorical Tribalism in 2020 addresses that while attention has recently and rightly been paid to the tribal bifurcation of the GOP, the Democratic Party is similarly divided. Americans live in a democratic republic rather than a direct democracy and choices regarding governing concerns are configured through communicative action. These choices include those made between and within American political parties. Without rhetorical mediation and intervention, toxic partisan tribalism within the two major American political parties is likely to destabilize the nations’ federalist system of government. Kelley argues that intraparty tribalism poisons public life and consumes public space within which electoral politics, including discussion, deliberation and compromise, should be thriving. Democratic Disunity considers intraparty tribalism as a rhetorical form, uniquely positioned within the twenty-first century. Details are provided regarding language-in-use strategies with which to anchor a rhetoric of governing through a mindful, deliberative dialogue which diminishes the effect of political partisanship, including its toxic variations both between and within American political parties. Scholars and students of rhetoric, political communication, and political science will find this book particularly interesting.

Law and Election Politics

Law and Election Politics PDF Author: Matthew J. Streb
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136330178
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
Though the courts have been extremely active in interpreting the rules of the electoral game, this role is misunderstood and understudied—as, in many cases, are the rules themselves. Law and Election Politics illustrates how election laws and electoral politics are intertwined, analyzing the rules of the game and some of the most important—and most controversial—decisions the courts have made on a variety of election-related subjects. More than a typical law book that summarizes cases, Mathew Streb has assembled an outstanding group of scholars to place electoral laws and the courts‘ rulings on those laws in the context of electoral politics. They comprehensively cover the range of topics important to election law—campaign finance, political parties, campaigning, redistricting, judicial elections, the Internet, voting machines, voter identification, ballot access, and direct democracy. This is an essential resource both for students of the electoral process and scholars of election law and election reform.