The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions

Book Overview

The Supreme Court has been the site of the great debates of American history, from child labor and prayer in the schools, to busing and abortion. The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions offers lively and insightful accounts of over four hundred of the most important cases ever argued before the Court, from Marbury v. Madison and Scott v. Sandford (the Dred Scott decision) to Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade.
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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195139240
• ISBN13: 9780195139242
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 8.7" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Great Introduction Book

This book is perfect if you are interested in important decisions of the Supreme court but do not want to spend hours reading arguments, decisions and dissents in a civics book or findlaw. Oxford explains what happened in the case, why it is important and what the Supreme Court's decision did for American law. It is small, well bound, and for the price of the paperback it is a valuable ancillary text or primary text for any person who is interested in the law or the history of Supreme court decisions. It even offers a glossary for law jargon, the American constitution and the succession of the justices of the Supreme court.

A helpful, big-picture summary

As a law student, I slogged away through case books, trying to understand what a particular Supreme Court decision was about. After seeing this book, I picked it up to see if it would help put the decisions in context for me so that I could better understand the details of each case. By far, this book helped. For these important cases, the authors give you an idea of why the case was in the Supreme Court, some of the background history, the key elements of the decision, and in some cases, the effect of the decision. Not only did I understand how the case was decided, but I understand better about how the decision came about. For any reader trying to understand more about the decisions that have shaped us as a nation, then I would highly recommend taking a look at this book. For law students, this is a quick refresher that will definitely prove helpful.

A handy legal guide

Kermit Hall, editor of the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, is also editor of this volume that looks specifically at the cases. This book does have an appendix with basic information such as lists of Justices, but for the most part, this book is really a compilation of short articles that deal with the major cases of the Supreme Court. This guide contains hundreds of major cases that set important precedents for later courts, lower courts and society at large to follow. From early pivotal cases such as Marbury v. Madison, which set the precedent of judicial supremacy in Constitutional review, to the more recent cases such as Brown v. Board of Education (striking down 'separate but equal' arrangements), Miranda v. Arizona (setting up the popularly-known 'Miranda rights'), and Roe v. Wade. Unfortunately, this book was published before the monumental Bush v. Gore decision (Hall discusses this in his other Oxford Companion) - hopefully it will be included in a later edition. Each decision includes a description of the key issues, the opinion of the court, those who concur, significant dissents and attendant issues that might arise. This text also includes insights into the significant personalities of the Supreme Court, facts and trivia about the Supreme Court, and more. However, these are interesting incidentals, not detracting from the primary purpose of the text, which is to show the decisions themselves. The text includes an index of cases as well as an index of topics. This is a very useful text for those who need a quick, ready reference to the cases, particularly student of law, criminal justice, or political science.

No Home Should Be Without a Copy.

Bought the '92 edition and updated to the '99 edition. Wish it'd come in a binder so I could incorporate updates as they become available. Better than any civics book. Eye-opening, mind-boggling and absolutely fascinating reading.

Fantastic work of reference -- but index is faulty

I found this work fantastically helpful in locating and reading the gist of all the important cases that the Supreme Court has decided. Just a little complaint, however: the index of cases, said to be complete, is not. Loewe v. Lawlor, described on p. 163, for instance, is not listed in the index of cases. Unfortunately, I also found a few other cases which, though treated in the book, are inexplicably missing from this index.