"Great cases like hard cases make bad law" was Justice Holmes' famous aphorism arguing that the pivotal cases attracting Supreme Court attention make for poor bases upon which to construct a general law. Frequently, such cases catch the public's attention because they raise important legal issues, and they become landmark decisions from a doctrinal standpoint. Yet from a practical perspective, great cases could create laws poorly suited for far less publicly tantalizing but far more common situations. In Do Great Cases ...
Read More
"Great cases like hard cases make bad law" was Justice Holmes' famous aphorism arguing that the pivotal cases attracting Supreme Court attention make for poor bases upon which to construct a general law. Frequently, such cases catch the public's attention because they raise important legal issues, and they become landmark decisions from a doctrinal standpoint. Yet from a practical perspective, great cases could create laws poorly suited for far less publicly tantalizing but far more common situations. In Do Great Cases Make Bad Law? , Lackland H. Bloom, Jr. tests Justice Holmes' dictum by analyzing in detail the history of the Supreme Court's great cases, from 1803's pivotal Marbury v. Madison to 2012's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act case. He explains why the Court found a case compelling, how the background and historical context affected the decision and its place in constitutional law and history, and in doing so, synthesizes important analytical scholarship about these cases to form an intricate scholarly understanding of the holistic significance of the Supreme Court's reasoning in American constitutional law.
Read Less
