Supreme Court Justices Who Voted with the Government Nine Who Favored the State Over Individual Rights

Cases that come to the Supreme Court often pit a person who is asserting a constitutional right against some branch of federal or state government alleged to have violated that right. The Court's decision in a particular case, of course, decides whether the government did infringe upon the constitutional right asserted. But the decision does much more. It becomes the supreme law of the land and determines whether similar actions of government, federal or state, are permissible or unconstitutional. James E. Leahy's new book profiles nine Supreme Court justices whose votes, in cases involving a conflict between government and individual freedom, were most often on the side of the government. The justices profiled are Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.; Felix Frankfurter; Robert H. Jackson; John M. Harlan; Byron R. White; Chief Justice Warren E. Burger; Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist; Sandra Day O'Connor; and Antonin Scalia. Analyses are made of their votes and opinions regarding the First Amendment freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, petition, and association. Also examined are their votes and opinions on the rights of work, travel, privacy, and equal protection, all part of the due process clauses in the fifth and fourteenth amendments of the Constitution. The application of the Bill of Rights to the states is also discussed. Detailed biographies of the justices begin the analyses, and a helpful appendix lists the voting records of all nine justices in specific court cases and decisions.