A MERE MACHINE by Anna Harvey ( 9780300171112 ) - Books & Audio Books at Pickabook.co.uk

Item Details

Title:

A MERE MACHINE
THE SUPREME COURT, CONGRESS, AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

By:

Anna Harvey

Format:

Hardback

List price:

£53.00

Our price:

£47.70

Discount:

10% off

You save:

£5.30

ISBN 10:

0300171110

ISBN 13:

9780300171112

Availability:

Usually dispatched within 1-3 weeks.

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Stock:

Currently 0 available

Publisher:

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

26 November, 2013

Pages:

384

Description:

Textbooks on American government tell us that the Supreme Court is independent from the elected branches, and that independent courts better protect rights than their more deferential counterparts. The author reports evidence showing that the Supreme Court is in fact deferential to congressional preferences in its constitutional rulings.

Synopsis:

Introductory textbooks on American government tell us that the Supreme Court is independent from the elected branches and that independent courts better protect rights than their more deferential counterparts. But are these facts or myths? In this groundbreaking new work, Anna Harvey reports evidence showing that the Supreme Court is in fact extraordinarily deferential to congressional preferences in its constitutional rulings. Analyzing cross-national evidence, Harvey also finds that the rights protections we enjoy in the United States appear to be largely due to the fact that we do not have an independent Supreme Court. In fact, we would likely have even greater protections for political and economic rights were we to prohibit our federal courts from exercising judicial review altogether. Harvey's findings suggest that constitutional designers would be wise to heed Thomas Jefferson's advice to "let mercy be the character of the law-giver, but let the judge be a mere machine."

Illustrations:

19 b-w illus.

Publication:

Imprint:

Yale University Press

Returns:

Returnable

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A MERE MACHINE

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