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7+ Works 926 Membros 14 Reviews

About the Author

Disambiguation Notice:

(eng) Full name: William Hubbs Rehnquist
Born as: William Donald Rehnquist

Image credit: Official portrait of Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist

Obras de William H. Rehnquist

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Conhecimento Comum

Membros

Resenhas

Book was written in 1987 and WR clearly states he is not discussing current legal cases or the actions of his colleagues on the Court. Initial chapter is somewhat folksy and has unnecessary personal details IMO.

Background info on Hugo Black somewhat disturbing, esp that he admitted membership in KKK during his youth. This was long before borking became common practice, and can only wonder how it would be handled by society in this day and age. Amazing...

Interesting that during 19th and 20th century it was quite common for national politicians to be SC justices, and now days none are. Sandra Day O Conner being the last elected official.

Some pretty dry reading in the first 2/3 of the book and I struggled to maintain interest. A strength is his descriptions of various SC Justices..

Gets more interesting IMO when he speaks to process within the system ie certeriori?

Overall I think editor did a horrible job with an inexperienced author in his first book. Poorly organized

Procedures for analyzing cases and presentation styles of lawyers presenting cases before court
… (mais)
½
 
Marcado
delta351 | outras 3 resenhas | Dec 23, 2023 |
Following the epic 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade (1973), the nature and role of the United States Supreme Court are being re-evaluated and criticized more intensely than at any time since the 1940s. This is a perfect time for an informed, scholarly, yet accessible history of the court, written at a moment when passions were not running so high. This is precisely what is available in former Chief Justice Rehnquist's 2004 study, written with sharp insight, a scrupulous regard for history, and even bits of subtle humor. This is not a casebook, detailing the Court's "greatest hits," but a study of why those cases, and many more, were and are so important. Although Rehnquist was regarded as a member of the "conservative" wing of the Court during his lifetime, the book is free of any hint of partisanship or polemical bias. History may regard Rehnquist as one of the Court's greatest justices; he is certainly one of its most gifted and enjoyable historians.… (mais)
½
 
Marcado
WilliamMelden | outras 3 resenhas | Jul 1, 2022 |
Rehnquist 33 évig volt a Legfelsőbb Bíróság bírája, ebből 19 évet főbíró. Korábban egy évet bírósági titkárként is dolgozott a Legfelsőbb Bíróságon. Vagyis az elég nyilvánvaló, hogy ért a témához, és rengeteg bennfentes információja is van.

A könyv szerkezete kissé fura, igazából több részből áll, melyek nem túl logikusan váltakoznak.

Rehnquist leírja a személyes élményeit is, de inkább csak a korai titkársági évről. Érdekes persze látni, hogy egy frissen jogot végzett fiatal miként éli át azt, hogy a Legfelsőbb Bíróságra kerül, de ennél sokkal érdekesebb lett volna ha a későbbi évekről ír ilyen személyesen. Teljesen megértem, hogy ezt igyekezett elkerülni, de azért maradt némi hiányérzetem.

Egy elég hosszú rész mutatja be a Bíróság történetét a legfontosabb ügyeket sorba véve. Az ügyek kiválasztásánál megkapjuk a kötelezően elvárt fontosakat (Marbury vs. Madison, Dredd Scott...), de azért néha kicsit meglepő volt az ügyek súlyozása, pl. nem számítottam rá, hogy a Steel Seizure Case lesz a legrészletesebben bemutatva. A történetben külön ki vannak hangsúlyozva azok az esetek, amikor a Bíróságot támadás érte kívülről, leginkább Franklin D. Roosevelt terveit elemezve, amikor megpróbálta telepakolni saját embereivel a Bíróságot. A történelmi áttekintés is befejeződik amikor Rehnquist csatlakozik, itt sem szeretett volna a kollégáiról túl sokat írni.

Egy külön rész mutatja be azt, hogy miként is működik a Bíróság, ez elég hasznos, de Woodward könyve szerintem ezt jobban bemutatja konkrét példákon keresztül.

Meg kell még jegyeznem, hogy a könyvet nem igazán éreztem elfogultnak, ami kellemes meglepetés volt. Ha van is elfogultság, az inkább az egész intézmény iránt, nem pedig politikai pártok felé.

Összességében nem rossz könyv, de mintha nem tudta volna eldönteni Rehnquist hogy pontosan miről is szeretne írni, egy szigorúbb lektorral jobb lett volna a könyv.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
asalamon | outras 4 resenhas | Nov 2, 2021 |
Centennial Crisis is Chief Justice William Rehnquist's interesting but ultimately disappointing telling of the disputed election of 1876.

The book is quite good at giving us the background of the central characters in the 1876 election - Grant, the outgoing President, Hayes, the candidate who ultimately won, Tilden his opponent. This takes up the first four chapters.

Chapter 5 covers the election itself, and here's where things get disappointing. Over the preceding 90 some pages Rehnquist covers the players in detail, but the play itself gets only eighteen pages, and there are twists and turns here that clearly could have benefited from further detail. I got to the end of Chapter 5 more than a bit confused by it all - Louisiana had a committee that simply threw out votes until they got the result they wanted? Oregon's governor simply substitutes electors because why? It's all really strange and not well explained - even to a reader going through the strange contortions of the 2020 election.

Suffice it to say that more than one state (Hello Florida) submitted votes from more than one slate of electors to the Electoral College, throwing the election to Congress. How Congress made it's way through the electoral mess, and managed to enlist Justices of the Supreme Court while doing so is the subject of the rest of the book.

Centennial Crisis is interesting as the product of the legal mind of the Chief Justice whose court ruled on the Florida ballot disputes in the 2000 election. It's worth a read for that reason alone. But if you are looking to understand the environment and the politics of 1876 that led to the dispute in the first place, then it's best to look elsewhere. Rehnquist, legal wizard he, is of course much more interested in the legal process of resolving the dispute, and it's impact on the Supreme Court, and that is the story he tells here.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
stevesbookstuff | 1 outra resenha | Feb 7, 2021 |

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Obras
7
Also by
8
Membros
926
Popularidade
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Avaliação
3.8
Resenhas
14
ISBNs
19

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