Courts, Politics, and Justice. This item is unavailable.Courts, Politics, and Justice

In this comprehensive text on American judicial politics the entire judicial process is examined, including federal, state, trial, and appellate courts. Most importantly, it treats all aspects of the courts and major participants, in the judicial process - from the organization of the court system (ranging from small courts to the U.S. Supreme Court), to lawyers and judges, to decision making and policy making - as integral parts of American politics. The discussion of court organization (highlighted by the inclusion of several new charts and tables) has been completely revised to clarify and make specific the organization of both federal and state courts (ch.2). The third edition has been brought up-to-date to include new court decisions, trends in policies, new court appointments, and controversies concerning the use and role of courts (see ch. 4 - discussion of the selection of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court). There are more student-friendly features throughout, including the addition of several new "story inserts", presenting current and real-life examples of issues involved, additional charts and graphs, suggested readings at the end of each chapter, and an improved index. A complete discussion of lawyers and legal practice is also included, with a new section added on legal ethics (ch.3). Other major changes include: a new section on sentencing in criminal cases (ch.6); new discussion on the role of public opinion as it affects the Supreme Court decision making (ch.9); new discussion of the frequency of judicial review (ch.10); new discussion of the death penalty as part of the courts and social change (ch.12); major update on women's rights with expanded focus on abortion politics (ch.12); and much more.