Description:
Marbury v. Madison (1803) is frequently cited as the precedent for judicial review and evidence that the Supreme Court wields the last word on constitutional meaning. Both statements are demonstrably false.
Brief description:
Louis Fisher is visiting scholar at the William and Mary Law School. From 1970 to 2010 he served in the Library of Congress as senior specialist in separation of powers at Congressional Research Service and specialist in constitutional law at the Law Library. His many books include Constitutional Conflicts between Congress and the President, Sixth Edition, Revised; Presidential War Power, Third Edition, Revised; Military Tribunals and Presidential Power, winner of the Richard E. Neustadt Award; and Supreme Court Expansion of Presidential Power, all from Kansas.
Review Quotes:
"In a field crowded with book-length studies of judicial review and the finality of Supreme Court decisions, Louis Fisher has something new and important to say. In Reconsidering Judicial Finality he demonstrates that judicial review is not the only means by which the meaning of the Constitution can by ascertained, and that the Court is not always the final authority on the meaning of the law. Fisher's account of the ways in which Court finality has been contested will prove attractive to general readers and to scholars of constitutional law, legal history, and American politics."--Peter Charles Hoffer, coauthor of The Supreme Court: An Essential History, Second Edition
"For the same reasons that it distributes substantive governmental power across multiple federal and state institutions, the US Constitution also divides interpretative power across institutions; Congress, the president, the states, and the people all contribute to the development of constitutional law along with the Supreme Court. In Reconsidering Judicial Finality: Why the Supreme Court Is Not the Last Word on the Constitution, Louis Fisher, with his characteristic sweep and erudition, shows how all institutions of government engage in the enterprise of constitutional interpretation--and how they do so with widely varying skill and results that do not always reflect well on the federal courts. Covering more than two centuries of practice across a dozen different topics, this book should help put an end to the strangely enduring myth of judicial supremacy in constitutional interpretation."--Gary Lawson, coauthor of "A Great Power of Attorney" Understanding the Fiduciary Constitution
"Louis Fisher's most recent book provides a characteristically thorough and thoughtful argument for the shared nature of constitutional interpretation. In heated political times, Reconsidering Judicial Finality serves as a valuable reminder that American constitutionalism is and has been a collective effort fueled not only by the Supreme Court but also by the political branches and, more often than typically understood, by the people themselves."--Louis J. Virelli III, author of Disqualifying the High Court: Supreme Court Recusal and the Constitution