Book Review on "Courting Disaster"

Home  >  Topics  >  Law My Account

Book Review 4 pages (1272 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Courting Disaster

This response reviews the book Courting Disaster: How the Supreme Court is usurping the Power of Congress and the People. In the book, the concept of the Supreme Court in the United States of America is fully explained, giving particular attention to the successes and the failures of the Supreme Court. The others postulate that the growing power of the U.S. Supreme Court, whose initial function was to review laws and ensure their legality, is using its position to actually form and modulate legal rights according to their personal politics. Since the Supreme Court has ultimate authority in terms both of constitutionality and over the types of actions the other two branches can perform without fear of ramification from the Judicial Branch. More and more, the Supreme Court has been found to have usurped its responsibilities and to have tried to implement and enforce laws which are the parameters of the Legislative and Executive Branches respectively.

Review:

Pat Robertson (2004) wrote his book Courting Disaster How the Supreme Court is usurping the Power of Congress and the People for the explicit purpose of bringing up the issue of Judicial powers and the evidence he sees that this branch of the government is taking over powers which were constitutionally given to either the Legislative or Executive Branch. The author believes that slowly but surely, the United States Supreme Court has forfeited their original purpose and rather than simply decided upon the legality or validity of legislation, are actually becoming a politically biased unit who use the court system to determine morality, values, customs, and the perspective of the Ameri
Continue scrolling to

download full paper
can people. First he disseminates the differences between the original constitutional powers granted to the Supreme Court, how they have expanded their powers, and how they have become usurpers as the subtitle of the book accuses. More frighteningly, unlike Congress and the President, the Supreme Court's authority is seldom checked and those who are in positions of power, namely the justices, do not have the same penalties as the other government representatives which further differentiate the power between branches.

The Supreme Court, unlike Congress or the Executive Branch, is comprised of members who, once appointed, hold their positions for life (Appel 2009). According to the actual terminology, the justices are to serve only until the point where their judgment might be impeded. They can be impeached but this has never happened in the history of the United States. Consequently, when a person becomes a Supreme Court Justice, he or she will more than likely keep that job for the rest of their life, regardless of a change of regime or national attitude.

According to Robertson, the major evidence which supports his thesis has to do with whether or not the justices are actually doing what it is they were appointed to do. Namely, the Supreme Court justices are tasked with reading the constitution and interpreting it according to what the document actually says. However, more and more the justices are making decisions based upon what they believe the constitution should say or what they believe the writers meant to say rather than on what is actually stated in this all-important document. He states, "Through systematic reinterpretation and misreading of the Constitution, by disregarding the will of the people in dozens of politically charged cases, and by attempting to enshrine their own liberal notions of 'social justice' through tortured readings of the law, justices have substantially changed the form and substance of our American democracy" (Robertson 2004,-page 4). In many recent cases where the issues presented were not even in existence when the Supreme Court was established, i.e. abortion, gay rights, the death penalty debate, are being examined and criterion within the Constitution used to determine the legality of those issues. Technically speaking, since the Constitution does not… READ MORE

Quoted Instructions for "Courting Disaster" Assignment:

*The book to be reviewed is called Courting Disaster: How The Supreme Court Is Usurping The Power Of Congress And The People by Pat Robertson*

**PLEASE INCLUDE AN ABSTRACT PAGE**

After the abstract, you should begin your review with a solid introduction. This introduction should provide a *****road map***** of the review, and state your main conclusions up front (this is not a literary piece where you want to keep the audience guessing until the end). You need to grab the audience*****s attention from the beginning of the review. The beginning of a book review is one of the most important elements, and it sets the tone for the entire review.

It is essential that you write concisely while providing a comprehensive evaluation of the book. Following are some of the elements your review should contain:

*****¢ The title and author of the book you are reviewing.

*****¢ The author*****s audience and objective.

*****¢ The author*****s main arguments/contentions.

*****¢ Your evaluation of the author*****s support for the arguments presented.

*****¢ Identify outside sources that support or refute the author*****s conclusions.

*****¢ Assessment of the strengths and shortcomings of the book.

*****¢ Whether the book changed the way you think about the subject?

*****¢ How the book compares with the course materials on the topic.

*****¢ Your conclusions about the value of the book.

You will want to use specific references from the book to illustrate your evaluation; however, you do not want your review to be a string of lengthy quotations. You will want to use quotations sparingly, and use ellipses (the *****¦***** that indicates the omission of preceding or following material irrelevant to the author*****s point) to quote the most relevant portions. You also need do some research on the issues presented in the book. When you do use a quotation from the book, or any other outside material, be sure to put them in quotation marks and cite your sources in APA format.

How to Reference "Courting Disaster" Book Review in a Bibliography

Courting Disaster.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2013, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/courting-disaster-response-reviews/6523997. Accessed 29 Jun 2024.

Courting Disaster (2013). Retrieved from https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/courting-disaster-response-reviews/6523997
A1-TermPaper.com. (2013). Courting Disaster. [online] Available at: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/courting-disaster-response-reviews/6523997 [Accessed 29 Jun, 2024].
”Courting Disaster” 2013. A1-TermPaper.com. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/courting-disaster-response-reviews/6523997.
”Courting Disaster” A1-TermPaper.com, Last modified 2024. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/courting-disaster-response-reviews/6523997.
[1] ”Courting Disaster”, A1-TermPaper.com, 2013. [Online]. Available: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/courting-disaster-response-reviews/6523997. [Accessed: 29-Jun-2024].
1. Courting Disaster [Internet]. A1-TermPaper.com. 2013 [cited 29 June 2024]. Available from: https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/courting-disaster-response-reviews/6523997
1. Courting Disaster. A1-TermPaper.com. https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/courting-disaster-response-reviews/6523997. Published 2013. Accessed June 29, 2024.

Related Book Reviews:

Public Policy Processes and Analytical Approaches Critical Book Report

Paper Icon

Public Policy Processes and Analytical Approaches

Critical Book Review- David E. Lewis, the Politics of Presidential Appointments:

Lewis, David. 2008. The Politics of Presidential Appointments: Political Control Public Policy Processes… read more

Book Report 10 pages (3340 words) Sources: 2 Topic: Management / Organizations


Is Genetic Engineering a Solution to the Food Security Problem in Developing Countries? Term Paper

Paper Icon

Genetic Engineering of Food

"Protagonists argue that genetic engineering entails a more controlled transfer of genes because the transfer is limited to a single gene, or just a few selected… read more

Term Paper 14 pages (4546 words) Sources: 25 Style: Harvard Topic: Agriculture / Food / Culinary


Intelligence Pathologies Term Paper

Paper Icon

Intelligence Pathologies

The Church Committee Investigations which began in 1974 after the Watershed Scandal in President Nixon's administration found that intelligence agencies had unlimited executive power. The committee found that… read more

Term Paper 10 pages (3119 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Terrorism / Extremism / Radicalization


Meagans Law Meagan's Law Questions and Answers Essay

Paper Icon

Meagans Law

Meagan's law

Questions and Answers: Meagan's law

Questions and Answers: Meagan's law

Interviewing children requires a unique set of skills to accurately assess but at the same time,… read more

Essay 14 pages (5402 words) Sources: 28 Topic: Child Development / Youth / Teens


Supply Chain Planning Under Uncertainty a Real Options Approach Research Proposal

Paper Icon

Supply Chain Planning Under Uncertainty: a Real Options Approach

In a manufacturer's quest to manage its supply and demand chains, one simple word aptly portrays a certain, common, contemporary concern… read more

Research Proposal 44 pages (12190 words) Sources: 25 Style: Chicago Topic: Business / Corporations / E-commerce


Sat, Jun 29, 2024

If you don't see the paper you need, we will write it for you!

Established in 1995
900,000 Orders Finished
100% Guaranteed Work
300 Words Per Page
Simple Ordering
100% Private & Secure

We can write a new, 100% unique paper!

Search Papers

Navigation

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!