The Decline and Fall of the Supreme Court

The Decline and Fall of the Supreme Court examines the contemporary work of the U.S. Supreme Court and the advice and consent role of the Senate with regard to nominees to the Court. After presenting historical background on the intentions of the federalists and 20th-century jurisprudence, the work describes the baleful effects of the recent theory known as legal realism. The author examines the most dramatic of those effects―the polarized, polarizing, and partisan confirmation hearings with which the United States has become familiar―beginning with Abe Fortas and culminating with Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. This study will be of interest to scholars and laypeople in American history, political science, and law.

CHRISTOPHER C. FAILLE is a graduate of Marist College and the Western New England School of Law. He is a contributor to the Federal Bar News & Journal and is author of These Last Four Centuries (1988).