Peter Charles Hoffer

N. E. H. Hull

Distinguished Professor of Law N E H Hull

An historical analysis of the abortion debate retraces the key events, legal issues, and social consequences of this contentious issue since the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case. Simultaneous.

The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History

Roe V. Wade

Searching for an American Jurisprudence

Roscoe Pound and Karl Llewellyn

This up-to-date history of Roe v. Wade covers the complete social and legal context of the case that remains the touchstone for America's culture wars.

David S. Clark

James W. Ely

Kermit L. Hall

Joel B. Grossman

A landmark in legal publishing, The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court is a now classic text many of whose entries are regularly cited by scholars as the definitive statement on any particular subject. In the tradition of that work, editor in chief Kermit L. Hall offers up The Oxford Companion to American Law, a one-volume, A-Z encyclopedia that covers topics ranging from aging and the law, wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping, the Salem Witch Trials and Plessy vs. Ferguson. The Companion takes as its starting point the insight that law is embedded in society, and that to understand American law one must necessarily ask questions about the relationship between it and the social order, now and in the past. The volume assumes that American law, in all its richness and complexity, cannot be understood in isolation, as simply the business of the Supreme Court, or as a list of common law doctrines. Hence, the volume takes seriously issues involving laws role in structuring decisions about governance, the significance of state and local law and legal institutions, and the place of American law in a comparative international perspective. Nearly 500 entries are included, written by over 300 expert contributors. Intended for the working lawyer or judge, the high school student working on a term paper, or the general adult reader interested in the topic, the Companion is the authoritative reference work on the subject of American law.

The Oxford Companion to American Law

There are moments in American history when all eyes are focused on a federal court: when its bench speaks for millions of Americans, and when its decision changes the course of history. More often, the story of the federal judiciary is simply a tale of hard work: of finding order in the chaotic system of state and federal law, local custom, and contentious lawyering. The Federal Courts is a story of all of these courts and the judges and justices who served on them, of the case law they made, and of the acts of Congress and the administrative organs that shaped the courts. But, even more importantly, this is a story of the courts' development and their vital part in America's history. Peter Charles Hoffer, Williamjames Hull Hoffer, and N. E. H. Hull's retelling of that history is framed the three key features that shape the federal courts' narrative: the separation of powers; the federal system, in which both the national and state governments are sovereign; and the widest circle: the democratic-republican framework of American self-government. The federal judiciary is not elective and its principal judges serve during good behavior rather than at the pleasure of Congress, the President, or the electorate. But the independence that lifetime tenure theoretically confers did not and does not isolate the judiciary from political currents, partisan quarrels, and public opinion. Many vital political issues came to the federal courts, and the courts' decisions in turn shaped American politics. The federal courts, while the least democratic branch in theory, have proved in some ways and at various times to be the most democratic: open to ordinary people seeking redress, for example. Litigation in the federal courts reflects the changing aspirations and values of America's many peoples. The Federal Courts is an essential account of the branch that provides what Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Judge Oliver Wendell Homes Jr. called "a magic mirror, wherein we see reflected our own lives."

An Essential History

The Federal Courts

Few Supreme Court decisions have stirred up as much controversy, vitriolic debate, and even violence as Roe v. Wade in 1973. Four decades later, it remains a touchstone for the culture wars in the United States and a pivot upon which much of our politics turns. With that in mind, N. E. H. Hull and Peter Charles Hoffer have taken stock of the abortion debates, controversies, and cases that have emerged during the past decade in order to update their best-selling book on this landmark case. As with the first two editions, this book details the case's historical background; highlights Roe v. Wade's core issues, essential personalities, and key precedents; tracks the case's path through the courts; clarifies the jurisprudence behind the Court's ruling in Roe; assesses the impact of the presidential elections of George W. Bush and Barack Obama along with the confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Sonia Sotomayor; and gauges the case's impact on American society and subsequent challenges to it in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), and Gonzales v. Carhart (2007). This third updated edition also adds two completely new chapters covering abortion politics and legal battles in Obama's second term and Donald J. Trump's first term. The new material covers two important cases in detail: Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt (2016) and June Medical Services, LLC v. Russo (2020). The cases dealt with state laws--Texas and Louisiana, respectively--designed to limit access to abortion by requiring doctors performing abortions to have admission privileges at a state-authorized hospital within thirty miles of the abortion clinic. In both cases the Court ruled the laws unconstitutional, thus handing abortion rights' activists key victories in the face of an increasingly conservative Court. The new chapters also cover the confirmations of Justices Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh as well as the heated political environment surrounding the Court in the age of Trump.

The first book-length account of the most important trial in the history of the movement to secure the vote for women. Provides a concise and readable guide to the origins, proceedings, and significance of the controversial trial of Susan B. Anthony.

The Trial of Susan B. Anthony

The Woman who Dared to Vote

Williamjames Hoffer

A definitive history of the U.S. Supreme Court details the evolution of the legal institution from the early days of the American Republic to the present day, offering profiles of the justices, the Court's years under each Chief Justice, its influence on American life, and the issues, cases, and decisions they handled from the perspective of the time in which they came before the Court.

N. E. H. Hull

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