1 comments about Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr..

1. Biographies, especially judicial biographies, are typically centered around gossip, amateur psychology, political "message," or numbing minutiae. Dean Jeffries avoids those vices by using the late Justice Lewis Powell as the backdrop for an expert analysis of the gripping issues of Powell's tenure on the Court: the death penalty, privacy rights, poverty law, criminal jurisprudence, race and affirmative action, the First Amendment, etc. He tackles each of them with artful prose and persuasive logic.
   
   By depicting these developments as a panorama rather than a series of close ups, Dean Jeffries offers the educated reader invaluable insights into issues that still dominate our own times. Through the prism of events, we easily come to appreciate the extraordinary skills, energy, and intellect of Justice Powell himself. (We are also drawn to reflect on how hateful the present system of "confirmation by ordeal" truly is.)
   
   This book is perfect as a gift for lawyers and anyone truly interested in understanding the law as the environment in which social policy dwells.

No comments about Democracy without Citizens: Media and the Decay of American Politics.

3 comments about Lawyer: A Life Of Counsel And Controversy.

1. As an entering student at Yale Law School, the Liman Foundation gave each and every one of us a hardcover copy of this, Arthur Liman's treacly memoir. It took me until my third year to read it; I missed nothing.

   Liman's career is utterly unworthy of a memoir; it is the sort of career than anyone of my colleagues at Yale could have with very little effort and even less ambition. Liman happily spends his life at the teat of corporate America; his "public service" is two quick resume-building years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and then he retreats back to the big-firm partnerhsip track.

   Any interesting experiences in the corporate world are happily ommitted; he mentions anti-semitism briefly when covering his college years at Harvard, and then never mentions it again. His later-career public service is reserved for high-level work on government committees, but after years of amassing vast sums as a corporate lawyer, he never says, "That's enough," and always returns to his million-dollar partnership at his big firm.

   He bellyaches at how much worse big firms are now than they were in the 50s when he was starting out, yet offers no examples of anything he did to help change the oppressive status quo.

   I must admit I am glad I read this miserable little book, if only to discover what kind of lawyer I never want to become.




2. Arthur Liman was a tremendous lawyer and citizen of this country. He was one of the more cognitively brilliant lawyers of the past 50 years, and possessed a social conscience of the highest order.

   Unfortunately, something is simply missing in this autobiography. I found it uneven and incomplete. The quality of the book simply doesn't match the quality of the person.




3. This is a remarkable autobiography. I highly recommend it, especially to those considering entering the legal profession.
   Liman is a superb writer who's easy-to-read style makes reading the book both an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Most importantly, Liman vindicates the legal profession by stressing the important contribution that good lawyers can offer to society. He also provides interesting insight into his role as a defense lawyer in the Michael Milken case and as a key player in the investigations of the Attica Prison riot and the Iran Contra scandal.

   Regards,

   Hans Perl-Matanzo
   (...)

5 comments about Ten Minutes from Normal.

1. I highly recommend this book.
   The negative reviews here are obviously from those
   who have a different political position than the author.
   
   How sad some can't look past partisan politics to enjoy
   a book. FYI: There are talented people in BOTH parties
   & I find it inspiring to read about those who choose
   to use their considerable talents in service to their
   country and what they believe is best for it.



2. I really enjoyed this book. It gives a good insight into a busy life of a politician..
   
   BEAWERE, Karen Hughes is a friend and a supporter of President Bush, so if you lack respect for the president you won't rate this book very high!



3. I really enjoyed reading this book! It is like having an inside look into the life of our president and some of the people who work closely with him. It is easy reading and very interesting. It is also very inspiring.
   
   Happy Reading!!!



4. This is a very well written and absorbing insight into the lives and goings-on of our government. I could hardly put it down.



5. No one should let this book escape perusal, especially at this reasonable price! You've heard that Karl Rove is "Bush's brain?" Well, Ms. Hughes is "Bush's brain on drugs (with a side of bacon)!"
   
   To read her describe Dubya's mind as "laser-like" leaves no doubt in my own mind that when she worked for Reagan, she was a conduit for Dubya on the "Star Wars - Strategic Defense Initiative" project. I don't remember if that was his pre-cocaine or post-cocaine years, but it all makes so much sense now.
   
   I'm happy that after a lifetime of one political success after another, she took time off from her busy schedule for a sabbatical to bake brownies for her young, hungry son. I wonder if perchance, she has a recipe for a cake with a file in it?
   
   Now that she's back on the team with her traveling road-show thumping America's generosity and love for the rest of the world, I suppose her son will go hungry, but at least America will be safe from those naughty terrorists! Praise da lard!

No comments about Anything Your Little Heart Desires: An American Family Story.

5 comments about The Forgotten Memoir of John Knox: A Year in the Life of a Supreme Court Clerk in FDR's Washington.

1. The Booknotes discussion some years ago was unforgettable. Later, after reading the book, I found the author's focus on details of segregated Washington in the 1930's... (Black v. White) (Employer v. Employee) (Rich v. Broke)... to be a powerful lens, useful for looking at today's urban messiness. DC back then was a disturbing mix of bizarre skin-color rules, hatreds, affections and above all: -intimacies.
   The boss (US Supreme Court Justice McReynolds) employs 'servants' & he takes the job description VERY seriously. A well-off guy from Jim Crow Kentucky is shown to have gruesome personal limitations. After all, HE DECIDES to what extent this is a Republic "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal..."
   What is the measure of a man who poisons nearly ALL interactions with his peers at work and with those of his own household? What indeed. This a great book, from the tragic, desolate pen of Mr. Knox.



2. This book is a gem for anyone interested in the Supreme Court or in this era in particular. It is unlike anything else I have read about the Justices who were part of the Constitutional Revolution of 1937. John Knox's memoir provides a glimpse of people rather than historical figures, and that glimpse explains a lot. His style is conversational and easy to read. And the book is hard to put down.



3. This book is a delight to read, and throws light on the Supreme Court in the momentous court year of 1936-37 when the Court was saved by Justice Roberts breaking away from the conservative wing of the Court and upholding New Deal laws which, if they had been held unconstitutional, might well have resulted in changes to the Supreme Court such as FDR had requested. The account by John Knox of how he came to be Justice McReynolds' law clerk and the odd life had to lead as such clerk is of much interest. I have seldom read a memoir of greater interest than is this one. Knox himself is a most unusual person, having a effrontery which amazes one looking at it from the viewpoint of history. The book is magnificently edited, with citations which enable one in this computer age to look up the cases mentioned and live the time with Knox. Knox's subsequent career is also of interest, and poignant. This book is a winner, and anyone interested in Supreme Court history will find reading this book extremely rewarding



4. From the dying days of Russia's Tsarist courts in which the young Kafka sharpened his perception of the absurd, here, similarly is the prophetic voice of a clerk in the blossoming federal judiciary.

   Watch carefully over the next decade or so for a similar glimpse behind the curtain of our Oz-esque federal judiciary. The federal bench is a well hidden bastion of intellectual dishonesty and privelege. Coming works of this nature will owe Knox a certain debt. You will read them with a sharper eye for having shared a year with Knox.

   After a clerkship ghostwriting for a fat/lazy/corrupt federal district court judge as a "law clerk", this account helped me understand my own mis-steps once I escaped to the saner world of rural criminal defense work.

   Our federal courts especially remain a bastion of royalist arrogance. Knox's glimpse should be treasured by anyone encountering the federal courts whether as barrister, litigant or citizen. He speaks a timeless truth against which we are not well armed.




5. If you're the ultimate policy wonk on 2nd Amendment law, you'll want to read this book just for John Knox's insights into the character of Justice McReynolds who wrote the decision in U.S. v. Miller, 1939. Unfortunately, Knox was no longer clerking for McReynolds in 1939, so we miss the inside story on that landmark decision, but after you've read this book you'll better understand why Miller makes so little sense.

2 comments about Judge Dave and the Rainbow People.

1. This book is, as President Teddy Roosevelt would say, DELIGHTFUL.
   For fellow judges, lawyers, and law students, it is a rare look into the judicial decision making process of a federal jusge. Judge Sentelle tells the story (laced with humour) of how he used appropiate judicial restraint and fairness to solve a complex civil case.
   As you follow his actions during the course of this case, you will see this judge exhibits humility, wisdom and common-sense judgment----virtues that all federal and state judges should have.
   Thanks, Your Honor, for an enjoyable and worthwhile book.



2. It's not every day that you read a book containing the full text of a consent agreement between parties to a health statute dispute and still find it very enjoyable. It's just as uncommon for a federal appeals court judge to write a book about the time he oversaw the peaceful assembly of thousands of middle-aged hippies in the woods of North Carolina. But that's what Judge Dave and the Rainbow People is about.

   The Rainbow People are not an organization as such. They're just whoever shows up around Independence Day each year at a place on federal land decided the year before. The people who show up are mostly baby boomer ex-hippies trying to relive the Summer of Love. They come by the thousands, get naked, and live in the woods for weeks. Invariably, the Forrest Service comes after them.

   In 1987 the Rainbow People converged on Nantahala Forrest in Western North Carolina. It wasn't long before the State tried to evict them under a sanitation law that was arguably unconstitutional. The case ended up before Judge Dave, who was a circuit court judge at the time.

   The result is an endearing account of how a conservative judge faced 15,000 decadent hippies (and at least one elephant), the ACLU, snarky law clerks, a ticking clock, and his own Senate confirmation to the D.C. Circuit in the background, and still managed to avoid catastrophe by avoiding a ruling on the law. Judge Dave is sincere and admits up front that this was one case where the results, and not the letter of the law, drove his decision. The alternative was a possible showdown between thousands of until-then peaceful gatherers and state troopers. I guess he made use of judicial discretion.

   Judge Dave got to visit the Rainbow camp a couple of times while he assessed the problem and later monitored the implementation of the agreement he brokered between the two sides. These visits account for much of the book and Judge Dave recounts them with a wonderful understated dry wit. "That weekend, July 4th occurred on Saturday as scheduled," he recalls in one part.

   You learn how tolerant Judge Dave is. Not in the modern meaning of the word, which holds that everyone's wonderful, but as originally defined: "to allow without prohibiting" even if one strongly disagrees. You also learn how truly peaceful the Rainbow People are and how this allowed tolerance to work. Finally, you learn that Judge Dave found himself staring at the naked ladies quite a bit!

   I would recommend this book, especially to lawyers, law students, and hippies (quite the niche). The only real critique I have is that at the end of the book, one of the Rainbow leaders shares his memories in 20 pages. I bet this was done to provide some sort of "equal time", but it doesn't add much and is actually a bit distracting. After finishing Judge Dave's hilarious and fair account of the gathering it's odd to go through a flat mini-review of what you just read. But hey, judge for yourself. Happy trails!

4 comments about Cardozo.

1. Professor Kaufman worked on this impressive biography of Benjamin Nathan Cardozo for over 35 years. There were times when one began to wonder if it would ever appear. Well, it did and it was worth the wait. This is a long book, running some 700 pages including notes. At times, it seems almost too detailed--but it is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in Cardozo, the development of American law, and the Supreme Court. Kaufman strikes a nice balance between BNC's private and public lives, his 18 year service on the New York Court of Appeals and his 5 or so terms on the Supreme Court, the biographical details one expects and the legal doctrines and opinions that he authored. Along the way, the author covers BNC's significant books; his involvement with the ALI; his work in developing key contract and tort concepts on the Court of Appeals; his long period as Chief Judge there; and his methods of working and drafting opinions while on the New York court.
   
   It is generally conceded that Cardozo's greatest contributions to the development of American law occurred on the CA and not during his service on the Supreme Court--he was the master common law judge rather than constitutional expert. So Kaufman devotes around 300 pages to Cardozo's service on that court. By contrast, around 100 pages are devoted to the Supreme Court and BNC's period in Washington. In fact, BNC does not get appointed until page 455. Cardozo found the Supremes a much less collegial body than the NY Court, in part because the justices were still doing the bulk of their work at home. Cardozo's views of state regulatory power and taxation, national regulatory power, court packing, and some civil liberties cases (such as Palko) are well addressed. Cardozo must have found it difficult to deal with colleagues such as Justice McReynolds and the other "four horsemen," but nonetheless he opposed FDR's court packing scheme.
   
   While Richard Polenberg's "World of Benjamin Cardozo" (also published by Harvard University Press) is itself a fine contribution, this is the most exhaustive study of Cardozo that we are likely ever to see. It is a masterful work, but one that requires persistence to get through. It is the book that BNC deserves.



2. Andrew Kaufman has written an engrossing account of the life of Benjamin Cardozo, a judicial hero of the first third of the century. This book should prove especially useful for first-year law students, who read many of Cardozo's most important decisions in their contracts and torts classes. But even non-lawyers with an interest in the legal system will find it highly readable and informative.



3. Professor Kaufman presents his subject, first, as a man, establishing the personal background that shaped Cardozo's work as a judge. Kaufman then offers an insightful examination of the judicial work of Judge and Justice Cardozo, analyzing the development and maturation of Cardozo's thinking regarding the many legal principles which have become mainstays of American jurisprudence. The biography is well suited to lawyer and non-lawyer, and provides an extraordinary social history of the shaping of the American common law that governs our lives and liability today. This biography is a must-read primer for all soon-to-be law students, who will find in it an invaluable guide to the principles they are preparing to study. Professor Kaufman's honest analysis of the talents and faults of his subject is much to be commended.



4. This is a book for laypeople and lawyers, rare in judicial biography. It is written in a clear and lucid prose, eschewing much of the current academic jargon. The author's years of work include many interviews with people now dead (and thus unavailable!), providing invaluable insights and perspectives into Cardozo's life and judicial influence. This work will be interesting to social historians, as well, for its treatment of the Nathan and Cardozo families' experiences in an evolving America.

4 comments about Texas Tornado.

1. A must read for every woman and particularly for Texas women. A real eye opener to the legal position of women in Texas before the passage of the Family Law that is now the law in Texas. Such a spunky woman and a real role model for today's woman. Today's woman too often forgets how far we have come and the women who made this possible.



2. This book is very boring. This book neither works as a biography nor as legal journalism.

   Raggio's life story is boring. Louise Raggio had a unremarkable and typical early 20th century life. The only exciting fact is that Grier Raggio her husband was accused of "unamerican activities" and was Lee Harvey Oswald's appointed attorney for several hours. Otherwise the stories of Louise Raggio growing up on a farm, going to college, getting her first job are tedious and without literary merit.

   As legal journalism, it is way too high level. There are no specific legislative stories, no landmark legal battles, no interesting legal cases. If Raggio revolutionized Texas family law it is not documented in this book.

   I would not recommend this book.




3. I thought that Colin Edwards was the Texas Tornado?? MotoGP ring a bell!?? Good Luck at Brno CEII!! This book on women's rights is great by the way, except for they shouldn't have any!! ;) For the guys on the Drizunken forum!



4. The book is not only a rich history of the fight for women's rights in Texas and the US but a wonderful look into the life of an incredible woman. The story is told with such warmth that you end up loving this tough, spunky, little woman. The book is a must read for every lawyer in the state of Texas while also a wonderful example of a dedicated wife (under often horrid circumstances) and a devoted mother.
   Louise Raggio is definitely a Texas Tornado.

3 comments about I Chose China: The Metamorphosis of a Country and a Man.

1. After reading Mr. Shapiro's "I Choose China", I have had much mixed feelings.

   In the book, Mr. Shapiro's tone about Mao is almost identical as the "People's Daily" - the official Chinese newspaper of propaganda nature. He is positive about Deng XiaoPing and his successors as well.

   In reality, Deng abolished Mao's policies and created a capitalistic society in 1979. It makes me wonder why Mr. Shapiro wrote about Mao according to the Chinese official guidelines while most Chinese people know very well that Mao was a man who committed unpardonable crimes to the Chinese people.

   To many Chinese, Mao was a devil while Deng was a "kind of" saint. How can the devil and the saint be praised in the same time?

   Mr. Shapiro narrated that his money was tight due to the Chinese currency being low in terms of the exchange rates. The cost of foreign travel was astronomical to the Chinese citizens. Yet he was able to travel to the US and Europe for many times including the pre-Deng years. How were his trips funded? The Chinese government gave him special treatment? I would think so. His grand daughter could even attend an expensive private school in Minnesota. Who paid for it? Alas, politics, connections, privileges etc... Were the readers informed? Nah...

   To sum up, like they have done to many other westerners who live in China in the past and present, I think the Chinese government for political reasons has used Mr. Shapiro. These westerners were sheltered, were provided comfortable living, and were used for propaganda.

   While I admire the great classical translation works by Mr. Shapiro (like Shui Hu and Family by Ba Jin), with much regret, I have to say that Sidney Shapiro only painted the bright side of the Chinese society in his book. The many years of darkness were simply buried.To state it unkindly, the author was a product of brainwash, Chinese style.




2. Sidney Shapiro went to China just after World War II. He had studied Chinese before coming, but he did not have a background in China, and had not planned to stay. He met and married a Chinese woman, and ended up staying on after the Communist takeover, working for the Chinese government as a translator. Shapiro is a very lucid writer, and easy to follow, but he seems obliged to rationalize some things about his adopted country that are hard to defend. For example, he says that Western missionaries left China after the war because they "were not needed anymore." Although I believe that his description of his life in China is an honest portrayal, there is always the feeling that he is sugarcoating policies that were clearly ill-fated. But Shapiro's book is just as noticeable for the things he concedes, such as the lack of press freedom in China. This book would be of special interest to individuals with an American frame of reference, because Shapiro is an American, and he writes in a very American style. Yet, he has lived and worked in China since just after World War II, a period of 50 years at the time the book was written in the mid nineties. Clearly, he has a better perspective on China than any other American born writer. You will not want to miss this book, but I would suggest reading a few of the others first, so that you have a little better framework from which to evaluate this one.



3. I read his book with curiosity. I paid attention to hisnarration of political events and found them to be chronologicallyprecise. The only drawback is that he had neutralized many of the notorious events like Tiananmen Massacre and the Cultural Revolution etc.

   The Chinese revolution is a tragedy from the very start when Dr Sun had to ally himself with the communists and Soviet Russia, but Mr Shapiro apparently was more influenced by the events starting from 1947 and the full-blown civil wars between communists and nationalists.

   One thing I would like to point out is that Mr Shapiro, like all the communists and the people of the privileged class (enjoying free medicare, housing, retirement pay, car, and free trips to USA and Israel), would be doomed to ignore the nature of Chinese society, i.e., communists CASTE society, where 70-80% of Chinese population still live, without the aforementioned benefits: the daughters of those peasants burnt to death in prison-like toy factories set up by the joint ventures of red capitalists and foreign capitalists in SEZ and costal cities, the husbands and youths being the coolie responsible for buidling the skycrapers across China, and the wives tilling the fields under the sun and in the rains for 50 years. Mr Shapiro would not understand that while gestapos could move around in China or out of China using multiple passports, the people in the CASTE could not do so, with miners continuing to die on the yearly basis in caveins and explosions, the oil-workers continuing to be contained in Western China, and the peasant-born children forever bound to their birthplace.

   -- CASTE means the children born would have to take mother's birth place as their locality of registration under communist doctrines, for sake of social stability and their ease of economic exploitation.

   Certainly, I would give credit to his account of Chinese history, especially the part about Qin's terra cotta sooldiers, the civil service exams, the ancient legal system, and the history of Se Mu Ren (color-eyed people) and the Jew history in China. History-wise, I would only add that Han Dynasty was not a succession of Qin Empire in any sense. In fact, the beginning of Han is a RESTORATION of Zhou Dynasty system, namely, the restoration of dukedoms and principalities, as manifested by the enthronement of those kings and dukes in respective localities of those dukedoms and principalities, under the supervision of nominal king of Chu (a shephard boy, said to be the grandson of last Chu king) and the two generals of Xiang Yu and Liu Bang (later the first emperor of Han).

   I would say a critical analysis of the book is worthwhile, and a comparative study with other books such as the one written by Mao's personal doctor from year 1955 to 1976 would be of great help.