Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion
A sweeping insider look at the life of William Brennan, champion of free speech and widely considered the most influential Supreme Court justice of the twentieth century Before his death, William Brennan granted Stephen Wermiel access to volumes of personal and court materials that are sealed to the public until 2017. These are what Jeffrey Toobin has called “a coveted set of documents” that includes Brennan’s case histories—in which he recorded strategies behind all the major battles of...
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This book is a sweeping and revealing insider look at court history and the life of William Brennan, champion of free speech and public access to information, and widely considered the most influential Supreme Court justice of the twentieth century. Before his death, Brennan granted coauthor Stephen Wermiel access to a trove of personal and court materials that will not be available to the public until 2017. Wermiel also conducted more than 60 hours of interviews with Brennan over the course of six years. No other biographer has enjoyed this kind of access to a Supreme Court justice or to his papers. Justice Brennan makes public for the first time the contents of what Jeffrey Toobin calls “a coveted set of documents,” Brennan’s case histories, in which he recorded the strategizing behind all the major battles of the past half century, including Roe v. Wade, affirmative action, the death penalty, obscenity law, and the constitutional right to privacy. Revelations on a more intimate scale include how Brennan refused to hire female clerks even as he wrote groundbreaking women’s rights decisions; his complex stance as a justice and a Catholic; and new details on Brennan’s unprecedented working relationship with Chief Justice Earl Warren. This riveting information—intensely valuable to readers of all political persuasions—will cement Brennan’s reputation as epic playmaker of the Court’s most liberal era. The New York Times - Dahlia Lithwick …the most comprehensive and well-organized look at the legendary liberal jurist to date. Stern and Wermiel dig below the popular cliché of Bill Brennan as the Constitution's Gene Kelly—all twinkling eyes and glad-to-see-ya Irish charm—to reveal the complicated (and quite conservative) man beneath…Where this book truly soars is in its account of Brennan's skills at…getting to five: finding a way to string together five fractious votes for some new principle or doctrine, or seeding some future principle or doctrine between the lines…Ultimately, Justice Brennan is a far more informative account of what the man achieved than why he did it.
List of IllustrationsPrologue: Last SurprisePart I: 1906-19561 Bill's Son 32 Lawyer 263 Ascending the Bench 48Part II: 1956-19624 Ike's Mistake 715 Joining the Court 966 Cold War 1327 Irish or Harvard 162Part III: 1962-19698 Triumphant 1959 Disarming the South 20910 Crime & Criticism 23011 Angering The Left 24912 Passages 27613 Tumult 296Part IV: 1969-198214 New Challenges 32715 Frustration Rising 35016 Pedestals & Cages 38517 Death & Dignity 40918 Unexpected Ally 43419 Darkest Years 456Part V: 1983-199720 Rebirth 48521 Twilight 50822 "So Long, Bill" 536Authors' Note 549Acknowledgments 552Sources 556Notes 559Index 650
