 | Justice Robert H. Jackson''s Unpublished Opinion in Brown v. Board: Conflict, Compromise, and Constitutional Interpretation Subjects: Brown Oliver 1918–1961 -- Trials litigation etc; Topeka (Kan.). Board of Education -- Trials litigation etc; Jackson Robert H. 1892–1954; Judicial opinions -- United States; Segregation in education -- Law and legislation -- United States; Discrim; Brown v. Board of Education is widely recognized as one of the US Supreme Court's most important decisions in the twentieth century. Robert H. Jackson, an associate justice on the case, is generally considered one of the Court's most gifted writers. Though much has been written about Brown , citing the writing and remarks of the justices who participated in the 1954 decision, comparatively little has been said about Jackson or his unpublished opinion, which is sometimes even mistakenly taken as a dissenting opinion. This book visits Brown v. Board of Education from Jackson's perspective and, in doing so, offers a reinterpretation of the justice's thinking, and of the Supreme Court's decision making, in a ruling that continues to reverberate through the nation's politics and public life. Weaving together judicial biography, legal history, and judicial politics, Justice Robert H. Jackson's Unpublished Opinion in Brown v. Board provides a nuanced look at constitutional interpretation, and the intersection of law and politics, from inside the mind of a justice, within the context of a Court deciding a seminal case. Through an analysis of six drafts of Jackson's unpublished concurring opinion, David M. O'Brien explores the justice's evolving thoughts on relevant issues at critical moments in the case. His retelling of Brown presents a new view of longstanding arguments confronted by Jackson and the other justices over "original intent" versus a "living Constitution," the role of the Court, and social change and justice in American political life. The book includes the final draft of Jackson's unpublished opinion, as well as the Warren Court's opinions in Brown and in Bolling v. Sharpe , for comparison, along with a timeline of developments and decision making leading to the Court's landmark ruling. David Michael O'Brien was born in Rock Springs, Wyoming on August 30, 1951. He received a bachelor's degree in political science and philosophy, a master's degree in political science, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He taught politics at the University of Puget Sound and served briefly as chairman of its politics department. He joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 1979 and taught politics there for almost four decades. He wrote, co-wrote, or edited more than a dozen books. His book, Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics, won the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award. He died of lung cancer on December 20, 2018 at the age of 67. (Bowker Author Biography) |
