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Abolish the Supreme Court? A Jacobin Perspective
Introduction:
The American Supreme Court, intended as a bulwark against tyranny, increasingly finds itself at the center of political storms. The calls to “abolish the Supreme Court,” once relegated to the fringes, are gaining traction, particularly within progressive circles. This article will delve into the Jacobin perspective on this controversial proposition, exploring the arguments for and against abolishing the Court, examining the historical context, and analyzing the potential consequences of such a radical change. We will navigate the complex legal and political landscape, aiming to provide a nuanced understanding of this deeply divisive issue. This isn't just about left vs. right; it's about the fundamental structure of American democracy and the role of its highest court.
I. The Historical Context: A Court Under Fire
The Supreme Court hasn't always enjoyed its current level of prominence. Its power, particularly in judicial review (the power to declare laws unconstitutional), has expanded over time, often through controversial decisions. From Marbury v. Madison establishing judicial review to Dred Scott v. Sandford upholding slavery, the Court's rulings have profoundly shaped the nation's trajectory, sometimes for the better, often to the detriment of marginalized groups. The Jacobin perspective emphasizes these historical inconsistencies, highlighting how the Court has often served as a tool to reinforce existing power structures rather than uphold justice. Examining decisions like Citizens United v. FEC, which dramatically altered campaign finance laws, or the ongoing debate surrounding abortion rights (particularly Roe v. Wade and its subsequent overturning), further fuels the argument that the Court is inherently flawed and needs fundamental reform or abolition.
II. The Jacobin Argument for Abolition:
The Jacobin position isn't simply a knee-jerk reaction to unpopular decisions. It stems from a deeper critique of the Court's structure and function. Key arguments include:
Undemocratic Nature: Supreme Court justices are appointed for life, insulated from direct democratic accountability. This means they are not responsive to the evolving will of the people, leading to decisions that clash with popular opinion.
Lack of Diversity: The Court has historically lacked diversity in terms of race, gender, and socioeconomic background. This lack of representation undermines its legitimacy and leads to decisions that disproportionately affect marginalized communities.
Judicial Activism vs. Restraint: The debate between judicial activism (interpreting the Constitution broadly to address contemporary issues) and judicial restraint (deferring to the legislature) is central. Jacobins often argue that the Court has engaged in excessive activism, overstepping its bounds and encroaching on the legislative branch's authority.
Entrenchment of Inequality: The Court's decisions, especially those related to economic inequality, voting rights, and criminal justice, are seen as exacerbating existing social and economic disparities, rather than mitigating them.
III. Counterarguments and Rebuttals:
Opponents of abolishing the Supreme Court cite the vital role it plays in upholding the rule of law and protecting minority rights. They argue that:
Checks and Balances: The Supreme Court is a critical component of the system of checks and balances, preventing the other branches of government from overstepping their authority.
Protection of Minority Rights: The Court can protect the rights of minorities from the tyranny of the majority, preventing popular opinion from overriding fundamental liberties.
Consistency and Predictability: A consistent body of law, interpreted by a Supreme Court, provides stability and predictability in the legal system.
The Jacobin response acknowledges these points but contends that these benefits are outweighed by the inherent flaws in the Court's structure. They propose alternative mechanisms for judicial review, perhaps incorporating elements of direct democracy or greater accountability. This might include term limits for justices, expanding the Court's size to increase diversity, or establishing a more robust process for nominating and confirming justices.
IV. Potential Alternatives and Reforms:
Instead of outright abolition, Jacobins often advocate for significant reforms, such as:
Term Limits for Justices: Limiting justices to a set number of years would increase accountability and responsiveness to evolving societal norms.
Court Expansion: Increasing the number of justices could promote diversity and reduce the influence of any single justice's ideology.
Overhauling the Nomination Process: Improving the nomination process to reduce partisan influence and prioritize candidates with diverse backgrounds and judicial philosophies could strengthen the Court's legitimacy.
Establishing a National Court of Appeals: A new appellate court could handle many of the cases currently heard by the Supreme Court, reducing its workload and allowing it to focus on the most significant constitutional questions.
V. Conclusion: A Necessary Debate
The debate over abolishing the Supreme Court, viewed through a Jacobin lens, is not a call for chaos but a demand for a more just and democratic system. While the radical nature of abolishing the Court is undeniable, the underlying concerns about its undemocratic nature, lack of diversity, and contribution to social inequality demand serious consideration. The discussion should center not merely on abolishing the institution but on envisioning a more equitable and representative system of judicial review that truly serves the interests of all Americans. The conversation requires a frank examination of historical failures, the inherent flaws in the current system, and the potential for innovative solutions that ensure a more just and democratic future.
Article Outline: "Abolish the Supreme Court? A Jacobin Perspective"
I. Introduction: Hooks the reader, provides an overview of the article's content.
II. Historical Context: Examines the Supreme Court's history, highlighting controversial decisions and the evolution of its power.
III. Jacobin Argument for Abolition: Outlines the key arguments from a Jacobin perspective, focusing on the Court's undemocratic nature, lack of diversity, and impact on inequality.
IV. Counterarguments and Rebuttals: Presents opposing viewpoints and addresses them with counterarguments from the Jacobin perspective.
V. Potential Alternatives and Reforms: Explores alternative mechanisms for judicial review and proposes reforms to improve the Court's functionality.
VI. Conclusion: Summarizes the key points, reiterates the need for discussion and reform, and emphasizes the pursuit of a more just and democratic system.
(Detailed explanation of each point is provided in the main article above.)
FAQs:
1. What is the Jacobin perspective? The Jacobin perspective is a left-wing political ideology emphasizing radical social and political change.
2. Why do some Jacobins want to abolish the Supreme Court? They argue the Court is undemocratic, lacks diversity, and contributes to social inequality.
3. What are the counterarguments against abolishing the Supreme Court? Opponents cite its role in upholding the rule of law, protecting minority rights, and maintaining legal stability.
4. What are some alternative reforms to abolition? Term limits for justices, court expansion, and overhauling the nomination process are key proposals.
5. What is judicial review? Judicial review is the power of the Court to declare laws unconstitutional.
6. How does the Supreme Court's lack of diversity affect its decisions? A lack of diversity can lead to biased rulings that disproportionately affect marginalized communities.
7. What is the difference between judicial activism and restraint? Activism involves broad interpretation of the Constitution, while restraint prioritizes deference to the legislature.
8. Could abolishing the Supreme Court lead to instability? This is a major concern, but proponents argue that alternative mechanisms can maintain legal stability.
9. What are some historical examples of controversial Supreme Court decisions? Marbury v. Madison, Dred Scott v. Sandford, Roe v. Wade, and Citizens United v. FEC are key examples.
Related Articles:
1. The Supreme Court's Role in American Politics: An overview of the Court's history and its influence on American politics.
2. Judicial Review: A Critical Analysis: A deep dive into the concept of judicial review, its origins, and its impact.
3. The Case for Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices: An argument for imposing term limits on Supreme Court justices to increase accountability.
4. Diversity on the Supreme Court: A Necessary Reform: An examination of the need for greater diversity on the Supreme Court bench.
5. Campaign Finance Reform and the Supreme Court: An analysis of the Court's decisions on campaign finance and their impact on elections.
6. The Supreme Court and Abortion Rights: A historical overview of the Court's rulings on abortion rights.
7. The Supreme Court and Economic Inequality: An examination of the Court's impact on economic inequality in the United States.
8. Alternative Models of Judicial Review: An exploration of different approaches to judicial review in other countries.
9. The Future of the Supreme Court: Speculation and analysis on the future of the Supreme Court and potential reforms.
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Velvet Coup Daniel Lazare, 2001-10-17 Not only will breakdowns like the one that occurred in November 2000 grow more frequent, they will grow more serious as well.--Jacket. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Stormy Present Adam I. P. Smith, 2017-10-06 In this engaging and nuanced political history of Northern communities in the Civil War era, Adam I. P. Smith offers a new interpretation of the familiar story of the path to war and ultimate victory. Smith looks beyond the political divisions between abolitionist Republicans and Copperhead Democrats to consider the everyday conservatism that characterized the majority of Northern voters. A sense of ongoing crisis in these Northern states created anxiety and instability, which manifested in a range of social and political tensions in individual communities. In the face of such realities, Smith argues that a conservative impulse was more than just a historical or nostalgic tendency; it was fundamental to charting a path to the future. At stake for Northerners was their conception of the Union as the vanguard in a global struggle between democracy and despotism, and their ability to navigate their freedoms through the stormy waters of modernity. As a result, the language of conservatism was peculiarly, and revealingly, prominent in Northern politics during these years. The story this book tells is of conservative people coming, in the end, to accept radical change. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Without Apology Jenny Brown, 2019-10-01 An indispensable guide to building a fighting feminist movement for reproductive freedom With an antiabortion majority on the Supreme Court and several states attempting to outlaw abortion altogether, many activists are on the defensive, hoping to hold on to reproductive rights in a few places and cases. This spirited book shows how feminism can start winning again. Jenny Brown uncovers a century of legal abortion in the United States until 1873, recalls women’s experiences in the illegal days, and shows how the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s really won abortion rights. She draws inspiration and lessons from the radicals of Redstockings, the Army of Three, and the Jane Collective, putting together a road map for today’s organizers from the black feminist argument for reproductive justice, the successful fight to make the morning-after pill available over the counter, and the recent mass movement to repeal Ireland’s abortion ban. Brown argues that politically conservative nonprofits have been setting the agenda, emphasizing rare tragic cases and relying on the rhetoric of choice and privacy. Instead, it is time to return to the fundamental ideas that won legal abortion in the first place: Women publicly telling the full truth of their own experience, demanding repeal of all abortion restrictions, and showing how abortion and birth control are the key demands in the struggle for women’s freedom. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy Michael Lewis, 2018-10-02 The New York Times Bestseller, with a new afterword [Michael Lewis’s] most ambitious and important book. —Joe Klein, New York Times Michael Lewis’s brilliant narrative of the Trump administration’s botched presidential transition takes us into the engine rooms of a government under attack by its leaders through willful ignorance and greed. The government manages a vast array of critical services that keep us safe and underpin our lives from ensuring the safety of our food and drugs and predicting extreme weather events to tracking and locating black market uranium before the terrorists do. The Fifth Risk masterfully and vividly unspools the consequences if the people given control over our government have no idea how it works. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Scorpion's Sting: Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War James Oakes, 2014-05-19 Explores the Civil War and the anti-slavery movement, specifically highlighting the plan to help abolish slavery by surrounding the slave states with territories of freedom and discusses the possibility of what could have been a more peaceful alternative to the war. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Black Jacobins C.L.R. James, 2023-08-22 A powerful and impassioned historical account of the largest successful revolt by enslaved people in history: the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1803 “One of the seminal texts about the history of slavery and abolition.... Provocative and empowering.” —The New York Times Book Review The Black Jacobins, by Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James, was the first major analysis of the uprising that began in the wake of the storming of the Bastille in France and became the model for liberation movements from Africa to Cuba. It is the story of the French colony of San Domingo, a place where the brutality of plantation owners toward enslaved people was horrifyingly severe. And it is the story of a charismatic and barely literate enslaved person named Toussaint L’Ouverture, who successfully led the Black people of San Domingo against successive invasions by overwhelming French, Spanish, and English forces—and in the process helped form the first independent post-colonial nation in the Caribbean. With a new introduction (2023) by Professor David Scott. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Machiavellian Democracy John P. McCormick, 2011-01-31 Intensifying economic and political inequality poses a dangerous threat to the liberty of democratic citizens. Mounting evidence suggests that economic power, not popular will, determines public policy, and that elections consistently fail to keep public officials accountable to the people. McCormick confronts this dire situation through a dramatic reinterpretation of Niccolò Machiavelli's political thought. Highlighting previously neglected democratic strains in Machiavelli's major writings, McCormick excavates institutions through which the common people of ancient, medieval and Renaissance republics constrained the power of wealthy citizens and public magistrates, and he imagines how such institutions might be revived today. It reassesses one of the central figures in the Western political canon and decisively intervenes into current debates over institutional design and democratic reform. McCormick proposes a citizen body that excludes socioeconomic and political elites and grants randomly selected common people significant veto, legislative and censure authority within government and over public officials. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Intellectual Origins of American Radicalism Staughton Lynd, 1982 |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Twilight of the Elites Christopher Hayes, 2012 Analyzes scandals in high-profile institutions, from Wall Street and the Catholic Church to corporate America and Major League Baseball, while evaluating how an elite American meritocracy rose throughout the past half-century before succumbing to unprecedented levels of corruption and failure. 75,000 first printing. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: It's Time to Fight Dirty David Faris, 2018-04-10 An accessible, actionable blueprint for how Democrats can build lasting, durable change—without having to amend the Constitution. “American democracy could disappear altogether within our own lifetimes. Everyone who wants to avoid that catastrophe must read his book.” —Guardian The American electoral system is clearly falling apart—more than one recent presidential race has resulted in the clear winner of the popular vote losing the electoral college vote, and Trump’s refusal to concede in 2020 broke with all precedents…at least for now. Practical solutions need to be implemented as soon as possible. And so in It’s Time to Fight Dirty, political scientist David Faris outlines accessible, actionable strategies for American institutional reform which don’t require a constitutional amendment, and would have a lasting impact on our future. With equal amounts of playful irreverence and persuasive reasoning, Faris describes how the Constitution’s deep democratic flaws constantly put progressives at a disadvantage, and lays out strategies for “fighting dirty” though obstructionism and procedural warfare: establishing statehood for DC and Puerto Rico; breaking California into several states; creating a larger House of Representatives; passing a new voting rights act; and expanding the Supreme Court. The Constitution may be the world’s most difficult document to amend, but Faris argues that many of America’s democratic failures can be fixed within its rigid confines—and, at a time when the stakes have never been higher, he outlines a path for long-term, progressive change in the United States so that the electoral gains of 2020 aren’t lost again. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Politics of Resentment Katherine J. Cramer, 2016-03-23 “An important contribution to the literature on contemporary American politics. Both methodologically and substantively, it breaks new ground.” —Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare When Scott Walker was elected Governor of Wisconsin, the state became the focus of debate about the appropriate role of government. In a time of rising inequality, Walker not only survived a bitterly contested recall, he was subsequently reelected. But why were the very people who would benefit from strong government services so vehemently against the idea of big government? With The Politics of Resentment, Katherine J. Cramer uncovers an oft-overlooked piece of the puzzle: rural political consciousness and the resentment of the “liberal elite.” Rural voters are distrustful that politicians will respect the distinct values of their communities and allocate a fair share of resources. What can look like disagreements about basic political principles are therefore actually rooted in something even more fundamental: who we are as people and how closely a candidate’s social identity matches our own. Taking a deep dive into Wisconsin’s political climate, Cramer illuminates the contours of rural consciousness, showing how place-based identities profoundly influence how people understand politics. The Politics of Resentment shows that rural resentment—no less than partisanship, race, or class—plays a major role in dividing America against itself. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Divided States of America Donald F. Kettl, 2022-03-15 As James Madison led America's effort to write its Constitution, he made two great inventions-the separation of powers and federalism. The first is more famous, but the second was most essential because, without federalism, there could have been no United States of America. Federalism has always been about setting the balance of power between the federal government and the states-and that's revolved around deciding just how much inequality the country was prepared to accept in exchange for making piece among often-warring states. Through the course of its history, the country has moved through a series of phases, some of which put more power into the hands of the federal government, and some rested more power in the states. Sometimes this rebalancing led to armed conflict. The Civil War, of course, almost split the nation permanently apart. And sometimes it led to political battles. By the end of the 1960s, however, the country seemed to have settled into a quiet agreement that inequality was a prime national concern, that the federal government had the responsibility for addressing it through its own policies, and that the states would serve as administrative agents of that policy. But as that agreement seemed set, federalism drifted from national debate, just as the states began using their administrative role to push in very different directions. The result has been a rising tide of inequality, with the great invention that helped create the nation increasingly driving it apart-- |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics James Oakes, 2011-02-07 A great American tale told with a deft historical eye, painstaking analysis, and a supple clarity of writing.”—Jean Baker “My husband considered you a dear friend,” Mary Todd Lincoln wrote to Frederick Douglass in the weeks after Lincoln’s assassination. The frontier lawyer and the former slave, the cautious politician and the fiery reformer, the President and the most famous black man in America—their lives traced different paths that finally met in the bloody landscape of secession, Civil War, and emancipation. Opponents at first, they gradually became allies, each influenced by and attracted to the other. Their three meetings in the White House signaled a profound shift in the direction of the Civil War, and in the fate of the United States. James Oakes has written a masterful narrative history, bringing two iconic figures to life and shedding new light on the central issues of slavery, race, and equality in Civil War America. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine , 1801 |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Obamacare Wars Daniel Béland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan, 2023-02-10 Not five minutes after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law, in March 2010, Virginia’s attorney general was suing to stop it. And yet, the ACA rolled out, in infamously bumpy fashion, and rolled on, fought and defended at every turn—despite President Obama’s claim, in 2014, that its proponents and opponents could finally “stop fighting old political battles that keep us gridlocked.” But not only would the battles not stop, as Obamacare Wars makes acutely clear, they spread from Washington, DC, to a variety of new arenas. The first thorough account of the implementation of the ACA, this book reveals the fissures the act exposed in the American federal system. Obamacare Wars shows how the law’s intergovernmental structure, which entails the participation of both the federal government and the states, has deeply shaped the politics of implementation. Focusing on the creation of insurance exchanges, the expansion of Medicaid, and execution of regulatory reforms, Daniel Béland, Philip Rocco, and Alex Waddan examine how opponents of the ACA fought back against its implementation. They also explain why opponents of the law were successful in some efforts and not in others—and not necessarily in a seemingly predictable red vs. blue pattern. Their work identifies the role of policy legacies, institutional fragmentation, and public sentiments in each instance as states grappled with new institutions, as in the case of the exchanges, or existing structures, in Medicaid and regulatory reform. Looking broadly at national trends and specifically at the experience of individual states, Obamacare Wars brings much-needed clarity to highly controversial but little-understood aspects of the Affordable Care Act’s odyssey, with implications for how we understand the future trajectory of health reform, as well as the multiple forms of federalism in American politics. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Democracy in Chains Nancy MacLean, 2017-06-13 Winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for the National Book Award The Nation's Most Valuable Book “[A] vibrant intellectual history of the radical right.”—The Atlantic “This sixty-year campaign to make libertarianism mainstream and eventually take the government itself is at the heart of Democracy in Chains. . . . If you're worried about what all this means for America's future, you should be.”—NPR An explosive exposé of the right’s relentless campaign to eliminate unions, suppress voting, privatize public education, stop action on climate change, and alter the Constitution. Behind today’s headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules, but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance. But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did. Democracy in Chains names its true architect—the Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan—and dissects the operation he and his colleagues designed over six decades to alter every branch of government to disempower the majority. In a brilliant and engrossing narrative, Nancy MacLean shows how Buchanan forged his ideas about government in a last gasp attempt to preserve the white elite’s power in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. In response to the widening of American democracy, he developed a brilliant, if diabolical, plan to undermine the ability of the majority to use its numbers to level the playing field between the rich and powerful and the rest of us. Corporate donors and their right-wing foundations were only too eager to support Buchanan’s work in teaching others how to divide America into “makers” and “takers.” And when a multibillionaire on a messianic mission to rewrite the social contract of the modern world, Charles Koch, discovered Buchanan, he created a vast, relentless, and multi-armed machine to carry out Buchanan’s strategy. Without Buchanan's ideas and Koch's money, the libertarian right would not have succeeded in its stealth takeover of the Republican Party as a delivery mechanism. Now, with Mike Pence as Vice President, the cause has a longtime loyalist in the White House, not to mention a phalanx of Republicans in the House, the Senate, a majority of state governments, and the courts, all carrying out the plan. That plan includes harsher laws to undermine unions, privatizing everything from schools to health care and Social Security, and keeping as many of us as possible from voting. Based on ten years of unique research, Democracy in Chains tells a chilling story of right-wing academics and big money run amok. This revelatory work of scholarship is also a call to arms to protect the achievements of twentieth-century American self-government. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Don't Blame Us Lily Geismer, 2017-01-31 Don't Blame Us traces the reorientation of modern liberalism and the Democratic Party away from their roots in labor union halls of northern cities to white-collar professionals in postindustrial high-tech suburbs, and casts new light on the importance of suburban liberalism in modern American political culture. Focusing on the suburbs along the high-tech corridor of Route 128 around Boston, Lily Geismer challenges conventional scholarly assessments of Massachusetts exceptionalism, the decline of liberalism, and suburban politics in the wake of the rise of the New Right and the Reagan Revolution in the 1970s and 1980s. Although only a small portion of the population, knowledge professionals in Massachusetts and elsewhere have come to wield tremendous political leverage and power. By probing the possibilities and limitations of these suburban liberals, this rich and nuanced account shows that—far from being an exception to national trends—the suburbs of Massachusetts offer a model for understanding national political realignment and suburban politics in the second half of the twentieth century. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Why Cities Lose Jonathan A. Rodden, 2019-06-04 A prizewinning political scientist traces the origins of urban-rural political conflict and shows how geography shapes elections in America and beyond Why is it so much easier for the Democratic Party to win the national popular vote than to build and maintain a majority in Congress? Why can Democrats sweep statewide offices in places like Pennsylvania and Michigan yet fail to take control of the same states' legislatures? Many place exclusive blame on partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression. But as political scientist Jonathan A. Rodden demonstrates in Why Cities Lose, the left's electoral challenges have deeper roots in economic and political geography. In the late nineteenth century, support for the left began to cluster in cities among the industrial working class. Today, left-wing parties have become coalitions of diverse urban interest groups, from racial minorities to the creative class. These parties win big in urban districts but struggle to capture the suburban and rural seats necessary for legislative majorities. A bold new interpretation of today's urban-rural political conflict, Why Cities Lose also points to electoral reforms that could address the left's under-representation while reducing urban-rural polarization. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: “The” French Revolution Hippolyte Taine, 1885 |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Socialist Manifesto Bhaskar Sunkara, 2019-04-30 The success of Jeremy Corbyn's left-led Labour Party and Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign revived a political idea many had thought dead. But what, exactly, is socialism? And what would a socialist system look like today? In The Socialist Manifesto, Bhaskar Sunkara, editor of Jacobin magazine, argues that socialism offers the means to achieve economic equality, and also to fight other forms of oppression, including racism and sexism. The ultimate goal is not Soviet-style planning, but to win rights to healthcare, education, and housing and to create new democratic institutions in workplaces and communities. The book both explores socialism's history and presents a realistic vision for its future. A primer on socialism for the 21st century, this is a book for anyone seeking an end to the vast inequities of our age. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The African Criminal Court Gerhard Werle, Moritz Vormbaum, 2016-11-29 This book offers the first comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the provisions of the ‘Malabo Protocol’—the amendment protocol to the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights—adopted by the African Union at its 2014 Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The Annex to the protocol, once it has received the required number of ratifications, will create a new Section in the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights with jurisdiction over international and transnational crimes, hence an ‘African Criminal Court’. In this book, leading experts in the field of international criminal law analyze the main provisions of the Annex to the Malabo Protocol. The book provides an essential and topical source of information for scholars, practitioners and students in the field of international criminal law, and for all readers with an interest in political science and African studies. Gerhard Werle is Professor of German and Internationa l Crimina l Law, Criminal Procedure and Modern Legal History at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Director of the South African-German Centre for Transnational Criminal Justice. In addition, he is an Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape and Honorary Professor at North-West University of Political Science and Law (Xi’an, China). Moritz Vormbaum received his doctoral degree in criminal law from the University of Münster (Germany) and his postdoctoral degree from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He is a Senior Researcher at Humboldt-Universität, as well as a coordinator and lecturer at the South African-German Centre for Transnational Criminal Justice. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine Or Monthly Political and Literary Censor , 1801 |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Framers' Coup Michael J. Klarman, 2016-09-16 Americans revere their Constitution. However, most of us are unaware how tumultuous and improbable the drafting and ratification processes were. As Benjamin Franklin keenly observed, any assembly of men bring with them all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views. One need not deny that the Framers had good intentions in order to believe that they also had interests. Based on prodigious research and told largely through the voices of the participants, Michael Klarman's The Framers' Coup narrates how the Framers' clashing interests shaped the Constitution--and American history itself. The Philadelphia convention could easily have been a failure, and the risk of collapse was always present. Had the convention dissolved, any number of adverse outcomes could have resulted, including civil war or a reversion to monarchy. Not only does Klarman capture the knife's-edge atmosphere of the convention, he populates his narrative with riveting and colorful stories: the rebellion of debtor farmers in Massachusetts; George Washington's uncertainty about whether to attend; Gunning Bedford's threat to turn to a European prince if the small states were denied equal representation in the Senate; slave staters' threats to take their marbles and go home if denied representation for their slaves; Hamilton's quasi-monarchist speech to the convention; and Patrick Henry's herculean efforts to defeat the Constitution in Virginia through demagoguery and conspiracy theories. The Framers' Coup is more than a compendium of great stories, however, and the powerful arguments that feature throughout will reshape our understanding of the nation's founding. Simply put, the Constitutional Convention almost didn't happen, and once it happened, it almost failed. And, even after the convention succeeded, the Constitution it produced almost failed to be ratified. Just as importantly, the Constitution was hardly the product of philosophical reflections by brilliant, disinterested statesmen, but rather ordinary interest group politics. Multiple conflicting interests had a say, from creditors and debtors to city dwellers and backwoodsmen. The upper class overwhelmingly supported the Constitution; many working class colonists were more dubious. Slave states and nonslave states had different perspectives on how well the Constitution served their interests. Ultimately, both the Constitution's content and its ratification process raise troubling questions about democratic legitimacy. The Federalists were eager to avoid full-fledged democratic deliberation over the Constitution, and the document that was ratified was stacked in favor of their preferences. And in terms of substance, the Constitution was a significant departure from the more democratic state constitutions of the 1770s. Definitive and authoritative, The Framers' Coup explains why the Framers preferred such a constitution and how they managed to persuade the country to adopt it. We have lived with the consequences, both positive and negative, ever since. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Give Them an Argument Ben Burgis, 2019-05-31 'Ben Burgis understands that in order to persuade people to join a political movement, you have to master the techniques of rigorous argumentation. He masterfully exposes the cheap sophistry of right-wing 'philosophy' and shows why there's still a place for logic and reason in political discourse. This is a crucial handbook for those who want to 'crush' and 'destroy' the Ben Shapiros of the world.' Nathan Robinson, Editor, Current Affairs Many serious leftists have learned to distrust talk of logic and logical fallacies, associated with right-wing logicbros. This is a serious mistake. Unlike the neoliberal technocrats, who can point to social problems and tell people trust us, the serious Left must learn how to argue and persuade. In Give Them an Argument, Ben Burgis arms his reader with the essential knowledge of formal logic and informal fallacies. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Lectures on the Relation Between Law & Public Opinion in England Albert Venn Dicey, 1914 |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: ReTargeting Iran David Barsamian, 2020-09-15 A timely primer on the conflict between the United States and Iran by scholars of Middle Eastern politics who advocate diplomacy and de-escalation. The United States and Iran seem to be permanently locked in a dangerous cycle of brinkmanship and violence. Both countries have staged cyber attacks and recently shot down one another’s aircrafts. Why do both countries seem intent on escalation? Why did the U.S. abandon the nuclear deal (which, according to the UN, was working)? Where can Washington and Tehran find common ground? To address these questions and the political and historical forces at play, David Barsamian presents the perspectives of Iran scholars Ervand Abrahamian, Noam Chomsky, Nader Hashemi, Azadeh Moaveni, and Trita Parsi. A follow-up to the previously published Targeting Iran, this timely book continues to affirm the goodwill between Iranian and American people, even as their respective governments clash on the international stage. Praise for ReTargeting Iran: In a Q&A format about the continued demonization of Iran by the U.S., [David] Barsamian gets at the key to the deterioration of the relationship between the two nations. … [T]he discussion is astute and relevant.—Kirkus Reviews A necessary and timely education on one of the most politically fraught and historically significant relationships of our time. I devoured these smart, insightful interviews with five important Iran scholars, about the struggle between two countries that have both been our home.—Dina Nayeri, author of The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You This little book contains more wisdom about Iran than exists in the White House, Congress, the State Department, and the Pentagon combined. Anyone who wants to understand the world's most misunderstood country will find no better source.—Stephen Kinzer, Author of All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror Many journalists and academics have written books about Iran. But ReTargeting Iran fills an important gap, a book sharply critical of U.S. policy and the Iranian government. David Barsamian provides timely interviews with major analysts that sets the record straight. It's a highly accessible read and a great introduction to the U.S.-Iran conflict.—Reese Erlich, author of The Iran Agenda Today: The Real Story Inside Iran and What's Wrong with U.S. Policy. ReTargeting Iran is a facts-only objective account of where America has gone wrong, stupidly wrong—yet again—in its foreign policy, dominated by a mythical belief that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program. All one needs to know about the threat is this: as of mid-2020, the United States had no less than thirty-five military bases, manned by 65,000 soldiers, ready go to war in the nations immediately surrounding our feared adversary.—Seymour M. Hersh, author of Reporter: A Memoir |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Dialectics of Citizenship Bernd Reiter, 2013-05-01 What does it mean to be a citizen? What impact does an active democracy have on its citizenry and why does it fail or succeed in fulfilling its promises? Most modern democracies seem unable to deliver the goods that citizens expect; many politicians seem to have given up on representing the wants and needs of those who elected them and are keener on representing themselves and their financial backers. What will it take to bring democracy back to its original promise of rule by the people? Bernd Reiter’s timely analysis reaches back to ancient Greece and the Roman Republic in search of answers. It examines the European medieval city republics, revolutionary France, and contemporary Brazil, Portugal, and Colombia. Through an innovative exploration of country cases, this study demonstrates that those who stand to lose something from true democracy tend to oppose it, making the genealogy of citizenship concurrent with that of exclusion. More often than not, exclusion leads to racialization, stigmatizing the excluded to justify their non-membership. Each case allows for different insights into the process of how citizenship is upheld and challenged. Together, the cases reveal how exclusive rights are constituted by contrasting members to non-members who in that very process become racialized others. The book provides an opportunity to understand the dynamics that weaken democracy so that they can be successfully addressed and overcome in the future. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Last Utopia Samuel Moyn, 2012-03-05 Human rights offer a vision of international justice that today’s idealistic millions hold dear. Yet the very concept on which the movement is based became familiar only a few decades ago when it profoundly reshaped our hopes for an improved humanity. In this pioneering book, Samuel Moyn elevates that extraordinary transformation to center stage and asks what it reveals about the ideal’s troubled present and uncertain future. For some, human rights stretch back to the dawn of Western civilization, the age of the American and French Revolutions, or the post–World War II moment when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was framed. Revisiting these episodes in a dramatic tour of humanity’s moral history, The Last Utopia shows that it was in the decade after 1968 that human rights began to make sense to broad communities of people as the proper cause of justice. Across eastern and western Europe, as well as throughout the United States and Latin America, human rights crystallized in a few short years as social activism and political rhetoric moved it from the hallways of the United Nations to the global forefront. It was on the ruins of earlier political utopias, Moyn argues, that human rights achieved contemporary prominence. The morality of individual rights substituted for the soiled political dreams of revolutionary communism and nationalism as international law became an alternative to popular struggle and bloody violence. But as the ideal of human rights enters into rival political agendas, it requires more vigilance and scrutiny than when it became the watchword of our hopes. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Reaganland Rick Perlstein, 2021-08-17 From the bestselling author of Nixonland and The Invisible Bridge comes the dramatic conclusion of how conservatism took control of American political power-- |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Pigs in Heaven Barbara Kingsolver, 2009-03-17 Picking up where her modern classic The Bean Trees left off, Barbara Kingsolver’s bestselling Pigs in Heaven continues the tale of Turtle and Taylor Greer, a Native American girl and her adoptive mother who have settled in Tucson, Arizona, as they both try to overcome their difficult pasts. Taking place three years after The Bean Trees, Taylor is now dating a musician named Jax and has officially adopted Turtle. But when a lawyer for the Cherokee Nation begins to investigate the adoption—their new life together begins to crumble. Depicting the clash between fierce family love and tribal law, poverty and means, abandonment and belonging, Pigs in Heaven is a morally wrenching, gently humorous work of fiction that speaks equally to the head and the heart. This edition includes a P.S. section with additional insights from Barbara Kingsolver, background material, suggestions for further reading, and more. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Sociology of Law and the Global Transformation of Democracy Chris Thornhill, 2018-06-21 Provides a new legal-sociological theory of democracy, reflecting the impact of global law on national political institutions. This title is also available as Open Access. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Selling Women Short Liza Featherstone, 2009-04-20 On television, Wal-Mart employees are smiling women delighted with their jobs. But reality is another story. In 2000, Betty Dukes, a 52-year-old black woman in Pittsburg, California, became the lead plaintiff in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores , a class action representing 1.4 million women. In an explosive investigation of this historic lawsuit, journalist Liza Featherstone reveals how Wal-Mart, a self-styled family-oriented, Christian company: Deprives women (but not men) of the training they need to advance -- Relegates women to lower-paying jobs, like selling baby clothes, reserving the more lucrative positions for men -- Inflicts punitive demotions on employees who object to discrimination -- Exploits Asian women in its sweatshops in Saipan, a U.S. commonwealth. Featherstone reveals the creative solutions Wal-Mart workers around the country have found-like fighting for unions, living-wage ordinances, and childcare options. Selling Women Short combines the personal stories of these employees with superb investigative journalism to show why women who work low-wage jobs are getting a raw deal, and what they are doing about it. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Ancient and Modern Democracy Wilfried Nippel, 2015 A comprehensive account of Athenian democracy as a subject of criticism, admiration and scholarly debate since 2,500 years, covering the features of Athenian democracy, its importance for the English, American and French revolutions and for the debates on democracy and political liberty from the nineteenth century to the present. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Constitutions in Times of Financial Crisis Tom Ginsburg, Mark D. Rosen, Georg Vanberg, 2022-06-30 Many constitutions include provisions intended to limit the discretion of governments in economic policy. In times of financial crises, such provisions often come under pressure as a result of calls for exceptional responses to crisis situations. This volume assesses the ability of constitutional orders all over the world to cope with financial crises, and the demands for emergency powers that typically accompany them. Bringing together a variety of perspectives from legal scholars, economists, and political scientists, this volume traces the long-run implications of financial crises for constitutional order. In exploring the theoretical and practical problems raised by the constitutionalization of economic policy during times of severe crisis, this volume showcases an array of constitutional design options and the ways they channel governmental responses to emergency. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: An Inheritance for Our Times Gregory Smulewicz-Zucker, Michael J. Thompson, 2020-05 |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Slave Portraiture in the Atlantic World Agnes Lugo-Ortiz, Angela Rosenthal, 2013-09-30 Slave Portraiture in the Atlantic World is the first book to focus on the individualized portrayal of enslaved people from the time of Europe's full engagement with plantation slavery in the late sixteenth century to its final official abolition in Brazil in 1888. While this period saw the emergence of portraiture as a major field of representation in Western art, 'slave' and 'portraiture' as categories appear to be mutually exclusive. On the one hand, the logic of chattel slavery sought to render the slave's body as an instrument for production, as the site of a non-subject. Portraiture, on the contrary, privileged the face as the primary visual matrix for the representation of a distinct individuality. Essays address this apparent paradox of 'slave portraits' from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, probing the historical conditions that made the creation of such rare and enigmatic objects possible and exploring their implications for a more complex understanding of power relations under slavery. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: Four Futures Peter Frase, 2016-11-01 An exploration of the utopias and dystopias that could develop from present society Peter Frase argues that increasing automation and a growing scarcity of resources, thanks to climate change, will bring it all tumbling down. In Four Futures, Frase imagines how this post-capitalist world might look, deploying the tools of both social science and speculative fiction to explore what communism, rentism and extermininsm might actually entail. Could the current rise of the real-life robocops usher in a world that resembles Ender's Game? And sure, communism will bring an end to material scarcities and inequalities of wealth—but there's no guarantee that social hierarchies, governed by an economy of likes, wouldn't rise to take their place. A whirlwind tour through science fiction, social theory and the new technologies are already shaping our lives, Four Futures is a balance sheet of the socialisms we may reach if a resurgent Left is successful, and the barbarisms we may be consigned to if those movements fail. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The Fourth Estate and the Constitution Lucas A. Powe, 1992-10-02 In 1964 the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in New York Times v. Sullivan guaranteeing constitutional protection for caustic criticism of public officials, thus forging the modern law of freedom of the press. Since then, the Court has decided case after case affecting the rights and restrictions of the press, yet little has ben written about these developments as they pertain to the Fourth Estate. Lucas Powe's essential book now fills this gap. Lucas A. Powe, Jr., a legal scholar specializing in media and the law, goes back to the framing of the First Amendment and chronicles the two main traditions of interpreting freedom of the press to illuminate the issues that today ignite controversy: How can a balance be achieved among reputation, uninhibited discussion, and media power? Under what circumstance can the government seek to protect national security by enjoining the press rather than attempting the difficult task of convincing a jury that publication was a criminal offense? What rights can the press properly claim to protect confidential sources or to demand access to information otherwise barred to the public? And, as the media grow larger and larger, can the government attempt to limit their power by limiting their size? Writing for the concerned layperson and student of both journalism and jurisprudence, Powe synthesizes law, history, and theory to explain and justify full protection of the editorial choices of the press. The Fourth Estate and the Constitution not only captures the sweep of history of Supreme Court decisions on the press, but also provides a timely restatement of the traditional view of freedom of the press at a time when liberty is increasingly called into question. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: The New Abolitionists Joy James, 2005-07-14 This collection of essays and interviews provides a frank look at the nature and purposes of prisons in the United States from the perspective of the prisoners. Written by Native American, African American, Latino, Asian, and European American prisoners, the book examines captivity and democracy, the racial other, gender and violence, and the stigma of a suspect humanity. Contributors include those incarcerated for social and political acts, such as conscientious objection, antiwar activism, black liberation, and gang activities. Among those interviewed are Philip Berrigan, Marilyn Buck, Angela Y. Davis, George Jackson, and Laura Whitehorn. |
| abolish the supreme court jacobin: United States of Socialism Dinesh D'Souza, 2020-06-02 The New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller For those who witnessed the global collapse of socialism, its resurrection in the twenty-first century comes as a surprise, even a shock. How can socialism work now when it has never worked before? In this pathbreaking book, bestselling author Dinesh D’Souza argues that the socialism advanced today by the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar and Elizabeth Warren is very different from the socialism of Lenin, Mao and Castro. It is “identity socialism,” a marriage between classic socialism and identity politics. Today’s socialists claim to model themselves not on Mao’s Great Leap Forward or even Venezuelan socialism but rather on the “socialism that works” in Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden. This is the new face of socialism that D’Souza confronts and decisively refutes with his trademark incisiveness, wit and originality. He shows how socialism abandoned the working class and found new recruits by drawing on the resentments of race, gender and sexual orientation. He reveals how it uses the Venezuelan, not the Scandinavian, formula. D’Souza chillingly documents the full range of lawless, gangster, and authoritarian tendencies that they have adopted. United States of Socialism is an informative, provocative and thrilling exposé not merely of the ideas but also the tactics of the socialist Left. In making the moral case for entrepreneurs and the free market, the author portrays President Trump as the exemplar of capitalism and also the most effective political leader of the battle against socialism. He shows how we can help Trump defeat the socialist menace. |
