Michal R. Belknap

American political trials

Preface Introduction: Political Trials in the American Past by Michal R. Belknap To Bee Rooted Out of Her Station: The Ordeal of Anne Hutchinson by Sandra F. VanBurkleo Politics, the Press, and the Law: The Trial of John Peter Zenger by Paul Finkelman Political Choice-Political Justice: The Case of the Pennsylvania Loyalists by Steven R. Boyd The Impeachment of Samuel Chase by Richard Ellis The Treason Trial of Castner Hanway by Paul Finkelman The Indianapolis Treason Trials and Ex Parte Milligan by Frank L. Klement The Pullman Strike Cases: Debs, Darrow, and the Labor Injunction by Daniel Novak Political Justice during the Red Scare: The Trial of Benjamin Gitlow by Harold Josephson The Angelo Herndon Case and Southern Justice by Charles H. Martin United States v. McWilliams: The Roosevelt Administration and the Far Right by Leo P. Ribuffo Cold War in the Courtroom: The Foley Square Communist Trial by Michal R. Belknap The Chicago Conspiracy Case by James W. Ely, Jr. The Iran-Contra Affair and the Trial of Oliver North by Michael Mayer Bibliographical Essay Index

In calmer times : the Supreme Court and Red Monday

In 1951, at the height of the Red Scare, Justice Hugo Black predicted that the Supreme Court would one day change its view on the balance between the need to ensure domestic security against subversive influences and an obligation to preserve First Amendment principles. Justice Black predicted that in calmer times the Court would favor protecting the rights of political dissenters. He was right: six years later, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover named June 17, 1957, Red Monday for the four Supreme Court decisions announced that day, meaning that the Reds had won. Arthur J. Sabin investigates the decisions after 1955 in which the U.S. Supreme Court repudiated its earlier endorsement of the political prosecutions that had engulfed the nation after World War II. Those prosecutions had sent hundreds to jail, reflecting a widespread belief that the nation was in serious danger of internal subversion and revolution. He does so in the context of the larger political culture of the times-and also in the context of the history of political dissent in America, from World War I through the McCarthy era and beyond.

The Supreme Court under Earl Warren, 1953-1969

In The Supreme Court under Earl Warren, 1953-1969; Michal R. Belknap recounts the eventful history of the Warren Court. Chief Justice Earl Warrens sixteen years on the bench were among the most dramatic, productive, and controversial in the history of the Supreme Court. Warrens tenure saw the Court render decisions that are still hotly debated today. Its rulings addressed such issues as school desegregation, separation of church and state, and freedom of expression. In 1954 Warren and his colleagues struck down school segregation as unconstitutional. They then participated in a broad campaign to win equal rights for African Americans. While it cautiously dismantled McCarthy-era infringements on civil liberties, the Warren Court boldly expanded freedom of expression in other areas. Frankly using constitutional law as a tool to promote political and social reform, the Warren Court revolutionized criminal procedure and mandated an end to the malapportionment of state legislatures and other representative institutions. It both invented and constitutionally guaranteed individuals rights to privacy with respect to sexual matters. Its rulings did much to advance the agenda of the liberal reformers who dominated American politics during the 1960s. But these rulings also angered many Americans, who accused the Warren Court of running God out of the public schools, handcuffing the police, and flooding the country with smut. Although it staggered to an end in 1969 amid controversy and scandal, the Warren Court revolutionized constitutional law. In the entire history of the Supreme Court, only John Marshalls tenure can compare with Warrens in respect to the significance of its decisions and its impact on the development of American constitutional law. No other Court has had greater impact on American culture and mores than that of Earl Warren. Drawing on internal memoranda as well as published opinions of the justices, Belknap reveals the philosophical debates and personality conflicts behind the Courts decisions. He also assesses the overall accomplishments and failures of the Warren Court and places them in both their political and social contexts.

The Constitution, Law, and American Life: Critical Aspects of the Nineteenth Century Experience

The eight essays collected in The Constitution, Law and American Life explore the interrelationship between law and society in 19th-century America and encompass in their discussion some of the major historical issues of the era. Featuring contributions by leading scholars in the field, the volume reflects the freshness and diversity of contemporary legal history. In a wide-ranging essay examining the social, cultural, intellectual and moral underpinnings of 19th-century law, Michael Les Benedict recreates the world view that informed Victorian legal culture and offers a bold reinterpretation of the legal order of the period. Two essays focus on the relation between slavery and the law. Philip Shaw Paludan provides a challenge to conventional wisdom about the framers of the Constitution and their attitude toward slavery, while Paul Finkelmans treatment of the South Bend fugitive slave rescue of 1849 offers a case study of the unbearable pressures that slavery placed on the legal process. Revealing the creative uses of law by white women and African Americans, Norma Basch and Donald G. Nieman show that constitutional principles afforded both groups the means to challenge oppression. These principles, they argue, played a pivotal role in movements that had their genesis in the 19th century and have transformed American life in our own time - the womens rights movement and the black struggle for freedom. Two essays focus on the law and social deviance. David T. Courtwright examines the social and legal forces that shaped the legal response to drug addiction. John S. Hughes shows how committment law afforded ordinary families in pre-Civil War Alabama a means to cope with domestic problems, including spouse abuse, incest and alcoholism. Exploring the relation between law and urbanization, Harold L. Platt demonstrates that, contrary to received wisdom, reformers of the Gilded Age made creative use of law to cope with the problems created by runaway urban growth and economic development.

Alarm Bells from the Past: The Troubling History of American Military Commissions

Among the most controversial of President George W. Bushs responses to the deadly September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was his issuance two months later of an order authorizing the trial before military commissions of aliens suspected of membership in that murderous organization or of involvement in terrorist activities.1 Two years after Bushs promulgation of that November 13, 2001 military order, no terrorist has yet stood trial before such a tribunal. That is not a bad thing. The history of American military commissions suggests that this is a legal device vulnerable to abuse that should be used only with the utmost caution.