E-Book Overview
As the nation turned its back on Reconstruction, the Supreme Court in turn narrowed Thirteenth-, Fourteenth-, and Fifteenth-Amendment protections of former slaves, thus straying from the understanding of the amendments' framers. Tracking a long line of cases that employed narrow constructions of these amendments and accompanying statutes, this study compares the Court's propositions to the framers' own interpretations. The resulting portrait makes it clear that the Court contributed in a significant way to the nation's retreat from Reconstruction. Before analyzing the relevant cases, Scaturro provides a historical synopsis of the collapse of Reconstruction. The final section demonstrates how the twentieth-century Court handed down decisions that accommodated the demands of the Civil Rights Movement, but did so with constitutional interpretations that preserved several misunderstandings about the Reconstruction Amendments, especially the Fourteenth. This study helps to resolve a contemporary dilemma regarding the consequences of the Court's narrowing of the Interstate Commerce Clause. It also challenges long standing assumptions about the state action requirement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments as well as the Fourteenth Amendment's Privileges and Immunities Clause. Besides being valuable to Supreme Court historians, the subject matter of this volume, which covers both constitutional law and legal history, will be of substantial interest to lawyers, judges, and political scientists, particularly in view of recent developments on the high Court. The lessons taught by this chapter of Supreme Court jurisprudence offer insight into constitutional interpretation in general, and the conclusion develops this idea by looking at the problematic interaction between law and outside historical influences.
E-Book Content
Page i The Supreme Court’s Retreat from Reconstruction Page ii Recent Titles in Contributions in Legal Studies Controversy, Courts, and Community: The Rhetoric of Judge Miles Welton Lord Verna C. Corgan Constitutional Politics in the States: Contemporary Controversies and Historical Patterns G. Alan Tarr, editor Law and the Great Plains: Essays on the Legal History of the Heartland John R. Wunder, editor Judicial Entrepreneurship: The Role of the Judge in the Marketplace of Ideas Wayne V. McIntosh and Cynthia L. Cates Solving the Puzzle of Interest Group Litigation Andrew Jay Koshner Presidential Defiance of “Unconstitutional” Laws: Reviving the Royal Prerogative Christopher N. May Promises on Prior Obligations at Common Law Kevin M. Teeven Litigating Federalism: The States Before the U.S. Supreme Court Eric N. Waltenburg and Bill Swinford Law and the Arts Susan Tiefenbrun, editor Contract Law and Morality Henry Mather The Appearance of Equality: Racial Gerrymandering, Redistricting, and the Supreme Court Christopher M. Burke Religion, Law, and the Land Brian Edward Brown Page iii The Supreme Court’s Retreat from Reconstruction A Distortion of Constitutional Jurisprudence Frank J. Scaturro Contributions in Legal Studies, Number 91 GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London Page iv Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Scaturro, Frank J. The Supreme Court’s retreat from Reconstruction : a distortion of constitutional jurisprudence / Frank J. Scaturro. p. cm.—(Contributions in legal studies, 0147–1074 ; no. 91) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–313–31105–6 (alk. paper) 1. Civil rights—United States—History—19th century. 2. Constitutional history—United States. 3. United States—Politics and government—1865–1900. 4. United States. Constitution. 13th–15th Amendments. I. Title. II.