Regulatory Rights – Supreme Court Activism, the Public Interest and the Making of Constitutional Law - Hardcover

Yackle, Larry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226944719 ISBN 13: 9780226944715

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2007

Synopsis

We have often heard - with particular frequency during recent Supreme Court nomination hearings - that justices should not create constitutional rights, but should instead enforce the rights that the Constitution enshrines. In "Regulatory Rights", Larry Yackle sets out to convince readers that such arguments fundamentally misconceive both the work that justices do and the character of the American Constitution in whose name they do it. It matters who sits on the Supreme Court, he argues, precisely because justices do create individual constitutional rights. Traversing a wide range of Supreme Court decisions that established crucial precedents about racial discrimination, the death penalty, and sexual freedom, Yackle contends that the rights we enjoy are neither more nor less than what the justices choose to make of them. "Regulatory Rights" is a bracing read that will be hotly debated by all those interested in constitutional law and the judiciary.

About this title

About the Author

Larry Yackle is professor of law and the Basil Yanakakis Research Scholar at Boston University School of Law. He is the author of several books, including Reclaiming the Federal Courts and Reform and Regret.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226944719
• ISBN 13: 9780226944715
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256