The Steps to the Supreme Court: A Guided Tour of the American Legal System
The Steps to the Supreme Court takes a lively, narrative approach to the subject by following two real cases--one civil, one criminal--as they work their way through the system all the way up to the Supreme Court. Written by a member of the Supreme Court bar, this book brings the legal system to life in a practical, accessible, and compelling way.
- Covers the key legal terms, principles, and processes you need to have a basic grasp of the American legal system
- Tracks the criminal case involving the murder trial of Paul House and follows the defendant from the night of the murder through his conviction, appeals, and final chance for exoneration at the hands of the Supreme Court
- Follows a civil case concerning the Ten Commandments being displayed on public property, following the parties from the time the plaintiffs filed their complaints through the Supreme Court decisions and back to the aftermath in the lower courts as they wrestle with a divided complex ruling
- Written by the author of A People's History of the Supreme Court, and other classic works on the American justice system
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Book details
- Author
- Peter Irons
- Imprint
- Trade Paper Press, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Pages
- 352
- Formats
- Paperback
- Subjects
- Political Science › American Government › Judicial Branch
Law › Courts - Topics
- criminal law · civil law · judicial branch · court cases · murder trials
- ISBN-13
- 9781118114995
About the author
PETER H. IRONS is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego and the author of numerous books on the U.S. Supreme Court and constitutional litigation. His recent books include The Steps to the Supreme Court, Jim Crow’s Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision and A People’s History of the Supreme Court.
Irons has received five Silver Gavel Awards from the American Bar Association. In 1988 he was chosen as the first Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished Visiting Professor of Human Rights at Rutgers University.
When he’s not writing, Irons works as a civil rights attorney and political activist. This engagement with constitutional law and civil rights runs throughout his books, which examine landmark Supreme Court cases and the promise of legal equality.