No Island of Sanity: Paula Jones v. Bill Clinton: The Supreme Court on Trial (Library of Contemporary Thought) - Softcover

Bugliosi, Vincent

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345424875 ISBN 13: 9780345424877

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1998

Synopsis

" One would like to think that the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest Court in the land, is the one island of sanity still remaining. But if what you folks are about to read is any indication, we've all got a lot to worry about. The question that presents itself is whether the near pathological dizziness and irrationality in our society has so invaded this nation's marrow that, like a wild-infectious virus, even the Supreme Court is not immune."
--from NO ISLAND OF SANITY

Now, in the powerful premiere of the Library of Contemporary Thought, Vincent Bugliosi takes a timely swipe at the Supreme Court's decision in Paula Jones v. Bill Clinton. Famed as the prosecutor of Charles Manson and author of the classic bestseller HELTER SKELTER, Bugliosi argues that the high court has rarely been proved so wrong, so fast.

NO ISLAND OF SANITY is only the beginning of an ongoing dialogue with some of the most original writers working today. Each month, the Library of Contemporary Thought will bring you a different voice on a hot-button topic in American life, politics, and culture. From Mickey Mouse to Tiger Woods, from how we age to how we read, no subject is too controversial or too unlikely for these powerful and provocative books.

About this title

Review

Vincent Bugliosi, the former L.A. County prosecutor who chronicled his successful efforts to put Charles Manson away in Helter Skelter, isn't afraid to let people know what he thinks. Others might be content to label a Supreme Court decision "incomprehensible and terribly flawed," but few would go on to raise the question of whether that decision reflected "near-pathological dizziness and irrationality" on the part of the nine justices as Bugliosi does in No Island of Sanity, a spirited, 132-page essay that launches Ballantine's monthly Library of Contemporary Thought series.

Although it takes 30 pages of a general rant against modern society for Bugliosi to address the case of Paula Corbin Jones v. William Jefferson Clinton, once he starts, he gets right to the crux of the matter: What on earth compelled the Supreme Court to decide that Paula Jones's private lawsuit against Bill Clinton was of a higher priority than serving the public interest by having a chief executive undistracted from his work? The problem, as he demonstrates, is that Clinton's lawyers tried to convince the Court that a lawsuit against an incumbent President was a violation of constitutional separation-of-powers doctrine, in that it would allow the judiciary branch of the government to have undue influence on the executive branch's fulfillment of its duties. The president's team never tried to argue that the public interest was better served by delaying the Jones suit until after Clinton left the White House.

There are individual points on which one might quibble with Bugliosi--for example, whether America really deserves to be taken seriously by foreigners when scandals such as Clinton's alleged sexual conduct erupts. But Bugliosi's central thesis, that Bill Clinton's request to have Jones's lawsuit delayed was not an extraordinary request, and that consideration both of legal precedent and the public interest ought to have led to the granting of that request, is convincingly argued with passionate rhetoric and vigorous factual support.

From the Publisher

Well, I worked directly with Vincent Bugliosi, and what a powerhouse he is! He is passionate and compelling in his views on the subject of the prosecution/persecution of Bill Clinton--and the more the Lewinsky case comes into the limelight (as if it could!), the more this book is a book you've got to read. You'll be shocked to discover where your tax dollars are going!

E. Gaffney, production

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0345424875
• ISBN 13: 9780345424877
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160