May It Please the Court

Michael Kahn`s and H.L. Pohlman`s Court Jesters brings together for the first time three things that are dear to the American people: the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and the power of the editorial cartoon. As the foundation of our democracy, the Constitution occupies a revered place in the hearts of Americans. More than the basic charter of our government, it is a symbol of our national unity and identity. But the Constitution cannot speak to us unaided. The Supreme Court gives voice to the Constitution`s provisions by applying them to specific cases and controversies. We Americans, descended from rough- and-tumble revolutionaries who loathed the pretense and hypocrisy that often pervade political life, love our editorial cartoons. While the Constitution and the court make Americans proud, cartoons make them laugh by exposing inconsistencies and debunking bunkum. This resulting survey is a topical, chronological look at some of the biggest constitutional controversies and court decisions in U.S. history--from secession to the Clinton impeachment--through the jaundiced eyes of editorial cartoonists. It is a wide-ranging and meticulously annotated collection substantive enough for the jurist or serious student (from high school to law school), but accessible enough for the educated armchair follower of American politics and law. Includes: secession, presidential power during the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th, 16th, 19th amendments, presidential ambitions of justices, appointments to the court, Prohibition, New Deal, FDR`s court-packing plan, appointment of Hugo Black, desegregation, school prayer, Watergate and executive privilege, abortion, sex discrimination, affirmative action, freedom of the press, flag burning, the Clinton impeachment controversy