Synopsis
This book is a sweeping and revealing insider look at court history and the life of William J. Brennan Jr., widely considered the most influential Supreme Court justice of the twentieth century. Buy This Book!
Justice Brennan makes public for the first time the full contents of Brennan's case histories, in which he recorded the strategizing behind all the major battles of the past half century, including Roe v. Wade, affirmative action, the death penalty, obscenity law, and the constitutional right to privacy.
Revelations on a more intimate scale include how Brennan refused to hire female clerks even as he wrote groundbreaking women's rights decisions; his complex stance as a justice and a Catholic; and new details on Brennan's unprecedented working relationship with Chief Justice Earl Warren. This riveting information—intensely valuable to readers of all political persuasions—will cement Brennan's reputation as epic playmaker of the Court's most liberal era.
Author
Seth Stern is a legal affairs reporter at Congressional Quarterly and has covered four Supreme Court confirmations. Seth’s articles and reviews about the court have also appeared in Slate and the Washington Post.
He has been quoted about the dynamics among justices by the New York Times and Newsweek and has appeared on Fox News Channel, MSNBC and NPR. Seth is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.