The Warren Court and the Democratic Constitution

By: Morton J. Horwitz, Erwin Chemerinsky - afterword

Narrated by: William Sarris

From 1953 to 1969, Earl Warren served as chief justice of the US Supreme Court. During that time, the Warren Court made a number of historically important decisions involving anti-miscegenation laws (Loving v. Virginia), the right to privacy (Griswold v. Connecticut), and, perhaps most important, racial segregation (Brown v. Board of Education).

In The Warren Court and Democratic Constitution, Horwitz highlights the radical shift in traditional jurisprudential ideas that occurred during Earl Warren's tenure as chief justice. He details how Brown v. Board of Education exerted a powerful influence on the agenda of the Warren Court and reshaped almost every subject area in constitutional law. With this decision, the concept of a "living Constitution," the idea that the Constitution ought to develop to accommodate social change, emerged and was institutionalized by the Court.

The Warren Court's jurisprudence is radically opposed to the current Supreme Court's emphasis on originalism, the approach of interpreting the Constitution according to its meaning at the time of writing. Listeners interested in an alternative to originalism, as well as Supreme Court history and civil rights, will gain a deeper understanding of the profound impact of the Warren Court on many areas of modern American government and society.

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