The Warren Court and the Constitution

The U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren attempted to transfer the balance of American political power from elected representatives to a coalition of restless, ambitious power-seekers on the liberal-left, charges author John Denton Carter. The Warren Court and the Constitution: A Critical View of Judicial Activism contends that the appointment of Warren as chief justice in 1953 launched the Supreme Court on a 16-year orgy of unprecedented judicial activism. While the author focuses his fire primarily upon Warren, the rubbery character and flexible principal that distinguished many members of the Warren Court also come under close scrutiny. Carter, who holds a doctorate in history from the University of California at Berkeley, writes that, under Warren, the Court was quickly transformed from an impartial forum of justice into a body of Constitutional anarchists. He argues that the liberal-left coalition focused its efforts on capturing the Supreme Court because it was unable to work its will sufficiently through the Congress and the Presidency. The author, who collaborated on the seven-volume History of the Army Air Forces in World War II, also contends that the only practical method of reforming the Court today is to pack it with conservatives, a procedure, he says, for which there is ample precedent. He warns that because the human thirst for power is insatiable, it is certain that this unlawful extension of the judicial authority will continue and become increasingly menacing to stable government and public order unless the court is contained and forced to return to its prescribed duties under the Constitution.