Product Description

Prominent jurists, social critics, and legal scholars explore Justice Brennan's impact on civil liberties, criminal justice, equality, and government in this volume, to be published in celebration of the Justice's ninety-first birthday. Tom Wicker, Anna Quindlen, Alan Dershowitz, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and a host of others offer tribute to Justice William J. Brennan's tremendous legacy in a collection of colorful, passionate essays. During his thirty-four years as a member of the Supreme Court, Justice William J. Brennan played a role in shaping American justice and society that is equaled by few others. Holding to his belief that the Constitution must be interpreted with equal parts of "reason and passion," Justice Brennan created a legacy of decisions, opinions, and dissents of remarkable importance in the protection of the dignity of the individual. His contributions include the one-person, one-vote doctrine, a guarantee of equal rights for women, the Roe v. Wade decision, a revolution in journalism (New York Times v. Sullivan), and slowing the proliferation of the death penalty the longest string of sustained dissents in history. Essays describing Justice Brennan's life and work are contributed by Tom Wicker, Anthony Lewis, Alan Dershowitz, Lani Guinier, David J. Garrow, Anna Quindlen, Nat Hentoff, David Halberstam, Derrick Bell, Laurence Tribe, Charles Ogletree, and others including six Supreme Court justices. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist provides a foreword to the volume, and Justice Brennan himself has contributed a piece reflecting on his remarkable tenure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2151898 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 332 pages

Amazon.com Review
Reason and Passion is something of a love letter to retired Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. from the Brennan Center, an organization founded by Brennan's former law clerks. In it, three dozen contributors discuss the justice's impact on the law and the nation over the nearly four decades that he served on the Court. The list of admirers includes judges, journalists, law professors, and lawyers, all of whom recall in their essays the importance of Brennan's opinions to the cause of human rights and equality under the law. Brennan, one of the Court's most liberal judges, was a great defender of individual rights, a position that paradoxically increased the strength of the federal government in ruling after ruling.

Not surprisingly, Reason and Passion is weighted in favor of those who agreed with Justice Brennan's politics and reading of the law; contributors include such liberal icons as Lanie Guinier and Anna Quindlen. Even Chief Justice William Rhenquist pulls some punches when discussing his former colleague's place in Supreme Court history, calling him "the intellectual leader of those espousing his views." For those seeking a balanced, critical view of the Brennan years, this is not the book for you; however, if you're interested in Brennan the man, Reason and Passion is a good place to start.

From Library Journal
In commemoration of retired Supreme Court Justice William Brennan's 91st birthday, editors Rosenkranz and Schwartz, the director of the Brennan Center and a law professor at the University of Tulsa, respectively, have gathered 33 essays?from scholars, journalists, and Supreme Court justices?to assess Brennan's political and legal impact on constitutional interpretation. The editors write, "Justice Brennan crafted an intricate and sweeping legacy based largely on his premise that constitutional interpretation demands equal parts of 'reason and passion.'" The essayists show that Brennan's concern for protecting and promoting human rights and dignity required that law be malleable to meet the changing needs of different time periods. Readers interested in U.S. history and constitutional development will find that these essays provide a good examination of the development of individual rights in the last three decades and an understanding of Justice Brennan's constitutional obligation to preserve individual rights and liberties. Highly recommended.?Steven Puro, St. Louis Univ.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
To celebrate Brennan's ninety-first birthday, Schwartz, a law professor at the University of Tulsa, and Rosenkranz, director of New York City's Brennan Center for Justice, have gathered more than 30 essays. Opening with Chief Justice Rehnquist's foreword and a characteristically modest note from Justice Brennan ("If this book describes a coherent legacy, it belongs not to me but to these courageous Americans [Supreme Court appellants] who dared to fight so others would not have to"), the volume addresses Brennan's impact on civil liberties, criminal justice, equality, and government with thoughtful essays by other Supreme Court justices (Blackmun, Ginsburg, Souter, and Breyer), leading journalists (such as Halberstam, Wicker, Lewis, Quindlen, Hentoff, and Toobin), noted legal scholars (Tribe, Ogletree, Dershowitz, Bell, and Guinier), historian David Garrow, and others. Convinced the Constitution had to be interpreted with passion as well as reason to protect the dignity of the individual in changing times, Brennan left an indelible imprint in his 34 years on the nation's highest court. Mary Carroll

Customer Reviews

I don't really understand this.
Why does the previous reviewer need to espouse his philosophy regarding the wrongdoings of Justice Brennan? Actually, I was looking for a review of the book, not a rant from some right wing freak. It appears as though you haven't actually read the book. I'm a law student and I'm doing research for a paper, so a real review might have been useful. And check your facts, sir, Brennan did not write Roe v. Wade. It was Justice Blackmun, who happened to be a Nixon appointee. Whoopsee!

Brennan: Enemy of Liberty
Brennan acted with breathtaking intellectual arrogance and contempt for the American people. Most of his "achievements" have already been exposed as failures -- affirmative action (government-sponsored racial discrimination), supression of religous expression (I'm an agnostic, by the way, but I don't enjoy the Court's meddling with expressions of religious views) and the famous Roe vs. Wade decision which, by imposing a "solution" that should have been debated by society, created one of the most destructive and polarizing arguments of recent times and may ultimately lead to more restrictions on abortion than would have otherwise been imposed. As one who favors choice, I would have preferred to have had the opportunity to persuade my fellow Americans, rather than having the outcome dictated by an arrogant, Napoleonic pipsqueak who lingered among us far too long. Sincerely, Denis Arvay ARVAY@IBM.NET