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Title: The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court by Peter H. Irons ISBN: 0-14-012810-7 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: March, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3.56 (9 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Peter Irons, The Courage of Their Convictions (1990)
Comment: I have used this book three times in UC and CSU public law classes have taught: Intro to Judicial Process, Intro to Judicial Politics, and American Government. It is a personalized, almost biographical approach to leading constitutional rights cases, replete with the "human" as well as "legal" story behind each of the 16 cases. Though short on some of the important legal arguments at the Supreme Court level, it covers well the dispositons and judicial personalities of the lower courts. More importantly, however, it deals with the suffering and courage of the litigants themselves.

As such, it is a terrific book for both introductory American Government and judicial politics/process courses at the college level.

I have also used Irons' new book JIM CROW'S CHILDREN in my upper division course on Racial Equality and the U.S. Supreme Court at U.C., Irvine, just this summer.

Rating: 5
Summary: The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans
Comment: This was a fantastic book! People may know about some Supreme Court decisions and its impact but I do not think people understand why such important cases were brought before the Supreme Court. We never learn in school who these people were, (they are everyday people) and exactly how much courage and determination it takes to fight your case to the Supreme Court (after all I think S.C hears about 1% of all cases filed to the Court). Irons is an academic but boy you can read this in a day-this is not a dreaded book you are assigned to read for school.

Rating: 3
Summary: The Point?
Comment: Irons does a great job telling the story of 16 individuals who brought their case to the Supreme Court, cases that often times went against the grain of society at the time. In this regard, he did a fine (although unabashedly ideologically biased) job.

The only problem is: what is the point of reading a whole book about the people that brought cases to the Court, when the ultimate importance of the Court lies in the nine justices and the decisions they make. The people in this book have very, very compelling stories. But that is not the point of the Supreme Court. A Supreme Court case by definition has broad implications that go very far past the individual party in the case. For example, Bowers v. Hardwick obviously had an impact on the claimant in the case, a homosexual who wanted the Court to rule that the right to privacy protected consensual sex for all people, gay and straight. That claim obviously goes beyond the Hardwick, the individual, having a greater impact on society as a whole.

So I am impressed by the fact that individuals like Mr. Hardwick have the guts to make such arguments, which I think is Mr. Irons's point. I'm not sure the relevance of that point, however, because the ultimate authority lies with the Supreme Court and the ultimate impact is on society as a whole.

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