Engines Of Liberty

"Most Americans see the Supreme Court as the ultimate arbiter of constitutional freedoms. They are not wrong to do so: most of the major changes we have seen to our constitutional rights in the past 200 years--ending segregation, prohibiting sex discrimination, protecting political association--have come about because of decisions made by the Supreme Court. But as the award-winning constitutional scholar David Cole argues in The Spirit of Liberty, while the Supreme Court may be the final decision maker, it is not the true source of constitutional change. Citizen activists are. Many times in this nation's history, citizens have fought to get their causes on the Court's docket--and have successfully waged parallel battles in the court of public opinion, which often guides the Supreme Court's decisions. Through the stories of three successful campaigns--for same-sex marriage, against gun control, and for civil liberties in the War on Terror--Cole reveals how advocates and interest groups sway the Supreme Court and, in the process, rewrite constitutional law. "--