Product Description
Originally published in 1882.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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The Founding Fathers wanted the judicial branch to serve as a check on the power of the legislative and executive, and gave the Supreme Court the responsibility of interpreting the Constitution in a way that would safeguard individual freedoms. Sadly, the Supreme Court has handed down many destructive decisions on cases you probably never learned about in school. In The Dirty Dozen, two distinguished legal scholars shed light on the twelve worst cases, which allowed government to interfere in your private contractual agreements; curtail your rights to criticize or support political candidates; arrest and imprison you indefinitely, without filing charges; seize your private property, without compensation, when someone uses the property for criminal activity--even if you don't know about it! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

No Audio Version
This looks like a fantastic book! But even us wonks don't have the time to sit down and read all the books that we would like to.
I have a lot respect for the work that both Bob Levy and Chip Mellor are doing within their respective institutes. Please, add an unabridged audio edition.

The Worst of the Worst of the Worst
The Dirty Dozen are twelve of the worst Supreme Court decisions from the New Deal through the present.The book gives some background info leading up to the Court hearing the specific case, and then explains what's at stake and the consequences. It shows the justices reasoning through the majority and dissenting opinions, and where the court went wrong in their thought process.

Some of the cases will leave you shaking your head in disbelief.Others will leave you shaking your head in total disgust.These decisions go against any rational thinking. After reading the first case, I figured that was the worst decision I had ever read.Not so.Each one is an abomination in its own right.

The book really reveals a much greater problem than twelve bad decisions: the framers intended for elected reps not the Supreme Court to change the Constitution.Instead we have we have justices, political appointees for life with no accountability to the people, rewriting the Constitution. The Supreme Court has been moving further and further toward restricting individual freedoms, and there is nothing we can do about it.

This book has certainly changed my view of the Supreme Court justices.Excellent book.It is very easy to read and understand for a book examining legal proceedings.

A Primer On Conservative (At Times Double-)Think
I thought this would be an insightful exploration of where the judiciary, through flawed Supreme Court decisions, has eroded the integrity of Constitutional protections.. .... and in ways, it is ---- But not always with an eye to the citizenry, or the rights of the individual.

The thesis of the book is that Court decisions have altered the power toward the Federal government, and many of the authors' conclusions are sound ones. I agree with a lot they say. But at times they leave me cold, their logic somehow removed from commonsense reality.

Their arguments contradicting Court decisions are sometimes housed in that strangest of psychical phenomena: the ability to say that freedom exists in money and property--------the conflation of rights to the individual with the rights of power and influence, an artificial and unsustainable mixture.

I want to look at one decision they examined to explain what I'm saying.
In the case of McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003), a challenge to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (McCain-Feingold), the court held that limiting the quantity of money being fed to political candidates made sense in the greater interest of fairness in the electoral process.

But NOT to the authors. . . .

"Money preserves and protects the free discussion of political ideas."
"Regulating the money that politicians raise and spend is a direct restriction on political speech, in the same way that regulating printng presses is a direct restriction on freedom of the press."

. . . who obviously are quite intellectually content to conflate money and freedom, money and free speech, without any acknowledgement that the conflation is not only illogical, but perversely so.

To the authors, the Court's differentiation in McConnell v.FEC of 1st Amendment-protected speech from the money used to pay for the speech is unsupportable: because to the authors, the money and the speech are one and same. To them, if you have the money, you have the speech, or at least the right to the speech; if you don't have the money, you don't have the speech, or, in realistic terms you don't have the right to the speech. By conflating speech with money, and protecting both equally under the Constitution, the authors are affirming that speech can be purchased.
Yet any thing that can be purchased is NOT free.

So equating free speech with purchased speech the authors contend is valid argument.
Consequently, Freedom = Wealth.And those who have the wealth have the right to speech. Those who do not have the wealth do not have the right to speech.
Not only is their conflation wrong, but their affirmation of the Constitutionality of such conflation leads to even further obfuscation of what freedom represents: to the authors freedom involves having power, and wealth defines that power.
This is NOT the ultimate freedom of a document which sought to mitigate the invested power of those who would gain power and use it constantly to their own ends.....or maintain that power over the struggles of those who would attempt to nationalize it to entrust it the the democratic citizenry.


Their Constitution is one predicated on wealth, and property, and patriarchal rights, not on quaranteed freedoms regardless of wealth or gender.
And while I found myself agreeing at times with some of their conclusions which ran counter to my established thoughts, I was still bothered by a certain lack of empathy in the authors with those who are disenfranchised from political equality from long-running social patterns. At times, social reparations mean softening the rules to allow a greater participation for minority members. The hard-and-fast Constitutional interpretation the authors at times espouse does not recognise this: rather it is whoever got there first deserves to have the upper hand.

On the plus side, the authors are quite clearly on the side of the limitation of governmental intrusion into legitimate ownership, and particularly against expanding the governments' ability to use police force against those who are not a threat or whose actions have not put others at risk. The right to seize property when there is evidence of wrongdoing constitutes excessive and unConstitutional punishment according to the authors, and I agree wholeheartedly with them.

It is unfortunate that the current SC has completely sided with the authors in the case of Citizens United v Federal Election Commission and proclaimed that yes, indeed, money does equate to free speech while reaffirming that corporations are not only persons, but persons with greater freedom of speech, bigger persons than regular citizens who are only people persons.
I can only imagine that Roberts & Company read this book, at least the part dealing with McConnell v. FEC.

And we are poorer for it.

trying to run France with a constitution intended for the European Union
This is a great highly readable book (I read it on an airplane). Stepping back from the details one realizes that the founders of the U.S. envisioned something like the modern European Union: a unified currency but most laws that touched one's life would be made locally. A citizen would have one voice among perhaps 5 or 10 million, as indeed a citizen of Sweden does today.

Starting in the 1930s, however, the U.S. has been trending toward the highly centralized government of the states within the European Union, e.g., France or Sweden. Laws that touch a citizen of California's daily life are made 3000 miles away and the citizen has one voice among 310 million if he or she wishes to change the law.

If we want to run the U.S. like this in the long run, we should probably scrap the Constitution and make a new one that explicitly limits the powers of the states and gives most power to a central federal government. Then we could affirmative decide what we wanted the federal government to do, instead of having everything squeezed in via the interstate commerce clause. We might also rethink our system of divided responsibility and finger pointing between the president and Congress, moving toward the parliamentary system that prevails in most of the world's democracies.

If we want to run the U.S. in some manner that at least vaguely resembles the constitution, we should stop asking the federal government to run our lives, e.g., spending more than half of the health care dollars.

Where We Went Wrong
How did the US political machine grow to such proportions?
Why are their regulations in nearly every aspect of American life?
How did the true intentions and selective wording of the constitution become so distorted?
How did this all happen, and why was it done?

If you are looking for any of these answers you will find them in "The Dirty Dozen".

This was an educational enlightenment on the role the Supreme Court has played on shaping modern day politics over the past eight decades.Worded for those who work outside the legal field, the facts are provided and explained in an excellent effort to narratively show the progression of the political floodgates being opened.
... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 1, pt. 2; Original Publisher: Butterworths; Publication date: 1879; Subjects: Law; Law reports, digests, etc; ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Solid
Fredrick Lane's "The Court and the Cross" is part legal history, part current affairs tract that follows the creation, past judicial treatment, and future outlook for both the Free Exercise Clause (which assures religious liberty to all Americans) and Establishment Clause (which theoretically assures the secular administration of American government).It opens with a recounting of the acts and debates between prominent politicians of the early U.S. republic that led to both clauses, as well as the its extension to state governments by the 14th Amendment, then finally into the U.S. Supreme Court's treatment of modern church-state issues.Lane generally devotes about a chapter each to key topics like public funding of religious institutions, prayer or other religious activity on public land or in public institutions, efforts by religious organizations to interfere with the teaching of evolutionary science in public schools, the ceaseless debate over the right to abortion and other aspects of the right of privacy, and so on.In the process, Lane discusses many of the people and organizations on the respective sides of these debates, and the effects of major historic events and social trends that have shifted the context in which the most important cases have come to the Supreme Court.

Lane delivers his facts in a largely objective, journalistic style, as is his analysis of the court opinions and legal development.However, Lane does express a distinctly pro-secularist opinion of his subject matter; he openly laments the many Supreme Court decisions that have eroded the wall of separation between church and state, and cautiously fears the Roberts-led conservative majority on the present court.I suspect that these opinions (although quite moderate and mainstream) are probably more responsible for the multiple 1-star reviews he has already accumulated than any other flaws in the material.

It is true that The Court and The Cross suffers from a mild lack of originality.Supreme Court and Constitutional scholars like Peter Irons and Cass Sunstein have recounted the historical development and interpretation of the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses much more fully and authoritatively than Lane attempts here.Recent investigative works like Michelle Goldberg's "Kingdom Coming" have exposed the puritanical agendas of organizations like Focus on the Family and the Thomas More Law Center.And numerous recent books by authors like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens have given the political arguments in favor of a secular state in much more forceful tones than anything Lane has to say.But as a brief, readable, pithy text that combines all three strains of research and exposition, The Court and The Cross is easily a worthwhile read.

Where's the beef?
Lane has authored just another bland "culture war in the courts" polemic.This same book has been written a thousand times over."The Court and the Cross" occupies an undistinguished space in that derby of echoes.A public library is the ideal place to yawn through this one, assuming you don't have anything better to do like hanging drywall or watching Major League II on TBS again.

Moral decline du jour
Frederick Lane leads the way to moral decline in his new book.All we need to do is to scare people into the belief that there is no God, Lane seems to say, and we can do it by frightening them about the next election.Next, when we rationalize the absurd we can throw stones at our neighbors too.This all makes sense, if you believe like Lane, that the moral order is bad.If you can turn the moral order upside down then what is to prevent endless war? Bad books will be forgotten and you can bet this one will be. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Book Description
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the U.S. Department of Justice is one of the smallest of the U.S. principal statistical agencies but shoulders one of the most expansive and detailed legal mandates among those agencies. Ensuring the Quality, Credibility, and Relevance of U.S. Justice Statistics examines the full range of BJS programs and suggests priorities for data collection.

BJS's data collection portfolio is a solid body of work, well justified by public information needs or legal requirements and a commendable effort to meet its broad mandate given less-than-commensurate fiscal resources. The book identifies some major gaps in the substantive coverage of BJS data, but notes that filling those gaps would require increased and sustained support in terms of staff and fiscal resources.

In suggesting strategic goals for BJS, the book argues that the bureau's foremost goal should be to establish and maintain a strong position of independence. To avoid structural or political interference in BJS work, the report suggests changing the administrative placement of BJS within the Justice Department and making the BJS directorship a fixed-term appointment.

In its thirtieth year, BJS can look back on a solid body of accomplishment; this book suggests further directions for improvement to give the nation the justice statistics--and the BJS--that it deserves.

... Read more

Product Description
Each annual edition of Supreme Court Watch offers students narratives and analyses of legal disputes, political battles, and social confrontations as they unfold before the Supreme Court. Also included are numerous excerpts from the justices' opinions and dissents on the Court's most influential cases of the past three terms, as well as a running preview of the cases awaiting the Court in the forthcoming term. ... Read more

Product Description
The Law is a book written by Frederick Bastiat. It is widely considered to be one of the top 100 greatest books of all time. This great book will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, The Law is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Frederick Bastiat is highly recommended. Exquisitely published and beautifully produced, The Law would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (152)

The true purpose of government
The truth never changes.As relevant today as the day it was written.It will remind you of what the true purpose of law and government is.It will remind you of what our founding fathers intended when they wrote the constitution.

Gets it right...
Great insights into the concept of justice, and the dangerous consequences and impact of twisting the law, away from impartial principles, to support any agenda.

I cannot recommend this book enough
"The Law" is a small book on the basics of economic principles written by Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), a French economist and member of their National Assembly. He only published works during the last 5 years of his life, which was cut short by a lingering illness.

The Law struck me as an ecnomics version of Thomas Paine's Common Sense - a short, easy to understand book full of impassioned, clearly laid out arguments and examples that clearly demonstrate the author's arguments.

Bastiat was a man who was not in synch with his times or his country. He grew up in Napoleonic France, a time and place that replaced the idea of individual liberty with government action for the good of the individual. Bastiat argues (and supplies plenty of examples to back his arguments) that this is a perversion of the purpose of government: "The organizers maintain that society, when left undirected, rushed headlong to its inevitable destruction because the instincts of the people are so perverse. The legislators claim to stop this suicidial course and to give it a saner direction. Apparently, then, the legislators and the organizers have received from Heaven an intelligence and virtue that place them beyond and above humankind; if so, let them show their titles to this superiority. They would be shepherds to us, their sheep. Certainly such an arrangement presupposes that they are naturally superior to the rest of us." (pp. 62-3)

Bastiat begins with a look at the origins of government. He argues, like Locke and Hobbes that governments had to have been organized to protect life and property. That is their purpose and when they stray from it, be it with protectionist schemes like tariffs or with Legal Plunder programs that "take from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong...if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do with commiting a crime...then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but it is a fertile source for further evils...it will spread, multiply and develop into a system." (p. 21)

Bastiat would not be happy with amount of influence most modern Western governments have over the economies of their countries and the lives of their people. I can only imagine this Frenchman would be a proud supporter of the Tea Party movement - low taxes, no loopholes or special breaks for favored industries, take a hard look at all government programs and get rid of those that engage in the "Legal Plunder" that I mentioned in the previous program.

So, what is this short book "The Law?" I found it to be exciting, invigorating, intellectually stimulating, simple in it language and argument and every bit of a match for Thomas Paine's Common Sense. If the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence have meaning for you, if Adam Smith'sThe Wealth of Nationsmakes sense to you, if you think Hayek's The Road to Serfdomand Freidman's Free to Choose are relevant to the modern world make a point of reading this short book - it is powerful in its simplicity and it still has meaning 160 years after its initial publication.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

Note: Please make sure you get the 1950 translation - by all accounts it is superior.

A classic that will reshape your thinking about government
This book by Bastiat, although an old book, is SO relevant today.Is asks important questions about the role and nature of government, especially tax funded programs.It's a must read for any homeschool highschool student, law student or concerned citizen.It may very well influence who you vote for during election time!

A ridiculous book
The pre-Constitution Articles of Confederation were found to be unsatisfactory for governing the colonies or states. Thus, begat the Constitution which has served quite nicely, especially in collecting enough taxes to have a modern army and educated (public school) military personal to man complex weapon systems.

Under Bastiat's idea of a limited and poor government he would have had to tell (if he been alive at the time) Hitler and WWII Japanese to go away and not bother the free (and greedy) men of America. ... Read more

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Legislative Learning breaks new theoretical and descriptive ground in examining the political perceptions, policy principles and power plays of the influential 104th Republican freshmen in the U.S. House.This even-handed book builds on the work of leading congressional scholars, and provides a detailed evaluation of coalition politics, freshmen style.Barnett shows how political environments can produce legislators who place a premium on their policy-making goals through a nuanced exploration of factors undergirding member perceptions, policy ambitions, class cohesion, and legislative learning. ... Read more