The Politics of Gay Rights (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society) Review

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The Politics of Gay Rights (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society) ReviewMost anything from University of Chicago Press is likely to be of high quality, and this anthology meets that standard. Gay and lesbian politics is an emerging and evolving discipline, and important milestones are occurring in real time. This volume, published in 2000, provides intelligent treatments of current issues but also plenty of context; while solid and scholarly, it mostly eschews the esoterica and pomo-homo preoccupations of many other works on the LGBT politics bookshelf. Chapters include treatments of history, policy, the Christian right, Congress, the Supreme Court, public opinion, and state and local politics. The editors and most of the contributors are well-known scholars and/or writers in political science or related fields (including Ken Wald, John D'Emilio, Craig Rimmerman, Keith Boykin, Didi Herman, Greg Lewis, James Button, Barbara Rienzo, Donald Haider-Markel, and Clyde Wilcox), and this is one of the book's strongest calling cards. Because it pulls together many topics addressed by some signature authorities in the field (many of whom have written book-length treatments of what appear here as chapters), "The Politics of Gay Rights" was, in my judgment, one of the first books in LGBT political science to be really useful as a core text for an undergraduate college course; I will be using it as such in a seminar on gay/lesbian politics in spring 2002 (please feel free to contact me for more information). But it's not a heavy-duty tome, so most anyone with serious interest in the subject should find it accessible and valuable.The Politics of Gay Rights (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society) Overview

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The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court Review

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The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court ReviewOver the years any number of best selling books have been written about the U.S. Supreme Court. If you are an avid reader like myself then you have probably read a few of them. Of all of the books I have read on this subject I found Jeffrey Toobin's new offering "The Nine: Inside The Secret World of the Supreme Court" to be among the very best. As senior legal analyst for CNN and a staff writer for "The New Yorker" Jeffrey Toobin is uniquely qualified to tackle a topic that most Americans know precious little about and frankly find a bit mysterious. Like peeling the skin from an onion Toobin succeeds in revealing just who these justices are and how they have evolved over time. It is a fascinating study.
One notion that "The Nine" certainly reinforces is the conventional wisdom that says there really is no way of predicting how a judge is going to vote on controversial issues after receiving a lifetime appointment to the United States Supreme Court. While it seems that majority of justices remain true to their philosophies after being appointed to the Court, a fairly significant percentage of appointees veer off in totally unexpected directions. Throughout "The Nine" Jeffrey Toobin introduces us to the men and women who have served on the Court over the past two decades. Depending on your point of view you will find some of the justices extremely likeable and others enigmatic. You will also learn who the reliable liberal and conservative votes are and who tends to occupy the center. And Jeffrey Toobin spotlights a number of controversial 5-4 cases where those 1 or 2 "swing" votes would make all the difference.

It is quite apparent that Jeffrey Toobin is a huge fan of the recently retired justice Sandra Day O'Connor. In fact, on a couple of occasions he refers to her as "the most important woman in American history". Appointed by Ronald Reagan in September 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor would spend a quarter century on the bench and prove to be the swing vote in a myriad of important cases. Toobin also views Justice Stephen Breyer in a similarly favorable light. Over the past few years conservative politicians and voters alike have been extremely critical of what they perceive as a very disturbing new development at the Supreme Court. There is little doubt that a number of the justices have been increasingly influenced by both international law and by the decisions of courts in other nations in making their decisions and in writing their opinions. Indeed, the members of the Supreme Court find themselves sharply divided on this issue and Jeffrey Toobin explains which members buy into this approach and why. This is a trend that certainly bears watching.

"The Nine: Inside The Secret World of the Supreme Court" certainly qualifies as one of the best books I have read this year. Although Toobin displays his liberal leanings in some of his observations from time to time this is nonetheless an extremely well written, generally balanced and very informative book. Highly recommended!
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