Packing the Court

The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court

By: James MacGregor Burns

Narrated by: Norman Dietz

For decades, James MacGregor Burns has been one of the great masters of the study of power and leadership in America. Now he turns his eye to an institution of government that he believes has become more powerful---and more partisan---than the Founding Fathers ever intended: the Supreme Court.

Much as we would like to believe that the Court remains aloof from ideological politics, Packing the Court reveals how often justices behave like politicians in robes. Few Americans appreciate that the framers of the Constitution envisioned a much more limited role for the Supreme Court than it has come to occupy. In keeping with the founders' desire for balanced government, the Constitution does not grant the Supreme Court the power of judicial review---that is, the ability to veto acts of Congress and the president. Yet throughout its history, as Packing the Court details, the Supreme Court has blocked congressional laws and, as a result, often derailed progressive reform. The term packing the court is usually applied to FDR's failed attempt to expand the size of the Court after a conservative bench repeatedly overturned key elements of the New Deal. But Burns shows that FDR was not the only president to confront a high court that seemed bent on fighting popular mandates for change, nor was he the only one to try to manipulate the bench for political ends. Many of our most effective leaders---from Jefferson to Jackson, Lincoln to FDR---have clashed with powerful justices who refused to recognize the claims of popularly elected majorities.

©2009 James MacGregor Burns (P)2009 Tantor

You should

read this book. Especially after the death of RBG, you should listen to this book. Go.

The Supreme Court Through the Eyes of the Far Left

Burns' book is well researched and full of good information. However, it is tainted by an extremist perspective that essentially advocates for the emasculation of the Supreme Court and the U.S. Constitution. It leaves out much. I wouldn't recommend for those who have not read other current works on the Constitution and the Constitutional Convention. Burns advocates that the Supreme Court is a power that works against the radical reengineering of the United States government. His extreme and offensive perspective convinced me that we need these voices from the bench. I'll vote against Burns' views any day.