David E. Marion offers a careful review of Brennan's opinions that clarifies his defense of libertarian dignity and illustrates the profound political and constitutional impact of Brennan's opinions on public discourse and government policy.

The Conscience of the Court celebrates the work of Justice William J. Brennan Jr., who served on the United States Supreme Court for thirty-four years (1956-1990). Stephen L. Sepinuck and Mary Pat Treuthart introduce and present selected judicial opinions written by Justice Brennan on issues involving personal freedom, civil liberties, and equality. Brennan is ranked by many as the best writer ever to have served on the Supreme Court, and his written opinions depict real people, often in desperate, emotional situations. Remarkable for their clarity of analysis, for their eloquence, and for their forcefulness and persuasiveness, his opinions demonstrate that judicial thought need not be a proprietary enclave of lawyers or the intellectual elite. The extended excerpts selected by Sepinuck and Treuthart highlight Brennan's approach to judicial decision making. Concerned always with how each decision would actually affect people's lives, Brennan possessed a rare quality of empathy. In Brennan, the editors note, "people and groups who lacked influence in society -- Communists and flag burners, children and foreigners, criminal defendants and racial minorities" -- found a champion they could count on "to listen to their causes and judge them unmoved by the passions of the politically powerful". This book is divided into four chapters dealing with freedom of expression, religious liberties and guarantees, the individual versus the state, and protections of equality. Within each chapter, the excerpted cases are presented chronologically. The editors selected more dissenting and concurring opinions than majority opinions because, they reason, a justice writing a dissent or concurrence isfreer to express personal views than one writing for the majority who may feel compelled to include or exclude certain statements in order to hold a fragile coalition together. Each opinion has been edited to focus on the constitutional question at issue while still preserving Brennan's style of expression and process of reasoning. In their introduction to each opinion, the editors provide background facts, discuss how the excerpted opinion transformed the law or otherwise fit into the realm of constitutional jurisprudence, and delve into Justice Brennan's judicial philosophy, his method of constitutional interpretation, and the language he used.

Fascinating and illuminating portrayal of William J. Brennan, Jr., who emerged from a nondescript past to become the seminal justice of our times.

Exploring his thirty-four year position on the United States Supreme Court, a detailed account of his significant contribution to the modern law on freedom of speech and the press notes his positions on civil rights, education, and capital punishment.

When he was named to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1956, he likened himself to a mule entered in the Kentucky Derby. But by the time he retired 34 years later, William Brennan was regarded as the seminal justice of the second half of the 20th century. Now the coauthor of the acclaimed biography of Justice Thurgood Marshall tells Brennan's story. 16 pages of photographs.

Hopkins examines the body of Justice Brennan's free expression jurisprudence. For him, Brennan was the prime protector of the rights of free speech and free press. He argues that Brennan's theory of free expression is built on the metaphor of a marketplace of ideas. He concludes that Brennan developed a philosophically sound First Amendment theory that was accepted by the Court, but is not being applied with the force necessary for it to be effective in practice.