Volume 15, Number 12 · January 7, 1971
Contempt of Court
By Richard Wasserstrom
The Supreme Court and the Idea of Progress
by Alexander Bickel
Harper & Row, 210 pp., $6.50
Professor Bickel's book has had more attention than most books by law professors—even when they write about the Supreme Court. I was not in the United States when the book was published, but I saw several newspaper columns and a rather long article in Time magazine about the book, all of them claiming that it was a thorough-going and harsh criticism of the Warren Court. Bickel's view that the Court's most famous decision, Brown vs. Board of Education, is 'irrelevant' and obsolete was regarded as especially news-worthy. The dust jacket, moreover, tells us that the book accuses the Court of 'irrationality, inconsistency, and, at times, incoherence; of overconfidence in itself and in the rule of the majority; and of unwise decisions which lead to undue centralization of government.'
Review, 3937 words
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