With Liberty and Justice for Some

The conservative majority that has dominated the Supreme Court for over a decade was engineered by presidents who claimed to have depoliticized the courts and promoted judicial restraint. Yet the result has been a steady stream of opinions that limit individual rights far more than is commonly understood. In this book, David Kairys presents an analysis of the changes brought about by the Reagan-Bush courts, changes that will long outlive those administrations. Kairys examines 31 Supreme Court decisions - covering rights of expression, participation in the political process, religion, equality, privacy and due process - and argues that the liberal decisions of the 1960s and early 1970s were an aberation in a larger, conservative pattern. Kairys, focusing on the stories of the people involved, highlights the on-going erosion of principles and rules typically thought to embody American notions of freedom. He criticizes both conservative and liberal rules and reasoning, and explores other alternatives. The book is a revealing and accessible expose of the role of law, the state of democracy, and the retrenchment of the rights of individuals in America over the last two decades.