The Burger Court: Once More in Transition

THE SUPREMEM COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: THE PURSUIT OF JUSTICE, Christopher Tomlins, ed., New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005

Posted: 9 Sep 2005

See all articles by Keith E. Whittington

Keith E. Whittington

Princeton University - Department of Political Science

Abstract

This chapter overviews the Burger Court and situates it in the political and legal context of the collapse of the New Deal-Great Society political coalition and ideological framework and the emergence of the new conservatism. The Burger Court marked a transition between the liberal activism of the Warren Court and the conservatism of the Rehnquist Court. Through accident of the appointment process and political and ideological proclivities of the major players, the Burger Court moved in a clearly conservative direction in very few areas, most notably criminal justice. In other areas of the law, the Burger Court either extended the activist legacy of the Warren Court or fractured into multiple competing visions of the constitutional future.

Keywords: Burger Court, judicial review, Warren Court, Rehnquist Court

Suggested Citation

Whittington, Keith E., The Burger Court: Once More in Transition. THE SUPREMEM COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: THE PURSUIT OF JUSTICE, Christopher Tomlins, ed., New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=800528

Keith E. Whittington (Contact Author)

Princeton University - Department of Political Science ( email )

Corwin Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544-1012
United States
609-258-3453 (Phone)
609-258-1110 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.princeton.edu/~kewhitt/

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Abstract Views
798
PlumX Metrics