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Title: All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime by William H. Rehnquist ISBN: 0-679-76732-0 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 January, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.25 (12 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Suddenly apt in today's world!
Comment: Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist wrote this book well before anyone could have imagined 9/11 and its aftermath, but these words written in peacetime seem especially appropriate now.
Rehnquist offers a balanced and sensitive discussion of some of the major issues in the history of American civil liberties in wartime. The bulk of his book focuses on Lincoln's suspension of habeus corpus during the Civil War. However, issues stemming from the World Wars, such as the suppression of speech and the internment of Japanese-Americans, are also considered in a thoughtful way, both from the perspectives of the times of the respective cases as well as that of today, benefitting from the hindsight history affords.
The Chief Justice seems to take great pains to explain otherwise complicated legal proceedings in a way that is accessable to virtually everyone. For anyone seeking to make sense of the debates over modern-day civil liberties, this book serves as an excellent introduction to the actions of those who have come before us.
Rating: 5
Summary: The "human factor"
Comment: This is an intelligent, articulate and, thanks to 9/11, timely discussion of constitutional problems that arise in wartime. The fact that the United States is now engaged in a "war on terrorism," and that the author is still Chief Justice of the United States, lends the book a special immediacy. It should be pointed out that Rehnquist limits his discussions to declared wars (WWI and WWII) and to the Civil War, which the Supreme Court in the Prize Cases of 1863 said could be treated as the equivalent of a declared war. For this reason, some of the constitutional principles considered may not be applicable to the current struggle with terrorists. Many of the broad principles considered, however, may well apply even to the "undeclared" wars which seem to have become the rule, rather than the exception, since Harry Truman committed hundreds of thousands of American troops to a "police action" in Korea in 1950. Rehnquist is a clear and often engaging writer (although his recitations of the facts of particular cases are sometimes flat). The book is engrossing, both for its insights into the hazards that civil liberties are subject to in time of war and for the window it opens on the reasoning processes of the Chief Justice himself. Near the end of the book, Rehnquist mentions "the human factor that inevitably enters into even the most careful judicial decision." "All the Laws But One" may help us understand the "human factor" that enters into the judicial decisions of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.
Rating: 3
Summary: Oh well, impartiality doesn't make for great writing.
Comment: The Writ of Habeas Corpus is perhaps the most basic right established in common law. The phrase "habeas corpus" is latin for "produce the body", and a writ of habeus corpus is an order from a judge to an official requiring the official to produce a prisoner in the judge's court to justify the imprisonment. It is the testing of this basic right, in wartime, which Chief Justice Rehnquist examines in this book.
Rehnquist concentrates on three periods in American history where habeus corpus was suspended: the Civil War, World War One and World War Two. He describes, analyzes, and even criticizes how the courts, and ultimately the Supreme Court, decided how and to what extent civil rights can be suspended in wartime.
As insight into the Supreme Court's decisions on habeas corpus, the book is invaluable: e.g. holding civilians prisoners without charges is OK, but prosecuting them in a military court is not. As raw material this is timely. However as a whole the book fails to hold our interest, despite its brevity. The book's chief flaw is also possibly a good judge's virtue: impartiality. Rehnquist avoids conveying a strong position on what he thinks the law should be and what future course it should take. Just as well. Better to have as Chief Justice a known conservative unwilling to commit himself but willing to listen, than to have a clear doctrinaire who expresses opinions too clearly from which he won't deviate.
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Title: Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security by David Cole, James X. Dempsey, Carole Goldberg ISBN: 1565847822 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Supreme Court by William H. Rehnquist ISBN: 0375409432 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Pub. Date: 06 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The War on Our Freedoms: Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism by Richard C. Leone, Greg, Jr. Anrig, Greg Anrig ISBN: 1586482106 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 17 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Enemy Aliens by David Cole ISBN: 1565848004 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: 26 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: A Matter of Interpretation by Antonin Scalia, Amy Gutmann ISBN: 0691004005 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 27 July, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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