New Titles in the Chastek Library

"The Eight were in court seeking, legally, to become people: to change their status under law from objects into human beings. The Eight encountered Louis Napoleon, who took enormous risks to help others. He was part of an anti-slavery movement in which African-Americans played an integral role in the fight for freedom. The case was part of the broader judicial landscape at the time: If a law was morally repugnant but enshrined in the Constitution, what was the duty of the judge? Should there be, as some people advocated, a "higher law" that transcends the written law? These questions were at the heart of the Lemmon case. They were difficult and important ones in the 1850s--and, more than a century and a half later, we must still grapple with them today." -- Publisher site.

"Estate Planning For Dummies teaches you the ins and outs of estate planning. This everyone-friendly guide walks you through building a solid estate plan, whatever your current financial situation. In easy-to-understand language, you'll learn the ins and outs of estate planning, including what happens to your stuff--cash, real estate, businesses, retirement funds, everything--when you pass away. This new edition is updated for the many recent changes in estate taxes and inheritance law." -- Publisher site.

"Fighting mad is a book about what 'reproductive justice' means and what it looks like to fight for it. Editors Krystale E. Littlejohn and Rickie Solinger bring together many of the strongest, most resistant voices in the country to describe the impacts of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision and what it means for abortion access and care. The essayists and change agents in this book represent are activists, artists, academics, abortion storytellers, health care professionals, legislators, clinic directors, and lawyers, and many more. They discuss abortion restrictions and strategies to provide care, the impacts of criminalization, efforts to protect the targeted, shortcomings of the past, and visions for the next generation. Fighting mad captures for the social and historical record the vigorous resistance happening in the early post-Roe moment to show that there are millions on the ground fighting to secure a better future." -- Publisher site.

"This book explores how the Supreme Court has made (and remade) securities law. It covers the history of the federal securities laws from their inception during the Great Depression, relying on the justices' conference notes, internal memoranda, and correspondence to shed light on how they came to their decisions and drafted their opinions." -- Publisher site.

"Since its first publication in 1991, The Hollow Hope has spurred debate and challenged assumptions on both the left and the right about the ability of courts to bring about durable political and social change. What Gerald N. Rosenberg argued then, and what he confirms today through new evidence in this edition, is that it is nearly impossible to generate significant reforms through litigation: American courts are ineffective and relatively weak, far from the uniquely powerful sources for change they are often portrayed to be. This third edition includes new data and a substantially updated analysis of civil rights, abortion rights and access, women's rights, and marriage equality. Addressing changes in the political and social environment, Rosenberg draws lessons from the re-segregation of public schools, victories in marriage equality, and new obstacles to abortion access." -- Publisher site.

"This study explores the language of canon law, the legal order of the Roman Catholic Church. It seeks to bring the language of canon law into the law and language debate and in doing so better understand how the Roman Catholic Church communicates as a legal institution. It examines the function of canon law language in ecclesiastical communications. It studies the character of canonical language, the grammar and terminology of canon law, and how it makes use of linguistic tricks and techniques to create its typical sound. It discusses the comprehension difficulties that arise out of ambiguities in the law, out of transfer problems between legal and common language, and out of canon law's confusing mix of legal, doctrinal, and moral norms. It reviews the potential consequences of a plain language agenda in the church." -- Publisher site.

"This text introduces rhetorical theory as applied to the law. Aristotle's definition of rhetoric-discovering all the available means of persuasion-encapsulates the benefits of rhetoric to lawyers. We know stories are persuasive, and narrative theory explains why. Law is built on metaphor and analogy. Argument structures are themselves persuasive. Rhetorical sensitivity and the features of the rhetorical situation offer frameworks useful in mediation and in working with clients. Questions of character, form, and structure address the larger questions of justice beyond individual cases and specific statutes. Students and practicing attorneys will gain insight from this text's rhetorically grounded advice on persuasive techniques drawn from classical rhetoric and contemporary rhetorical theories relating to argumentation, metaphor, analogy, and storytelling. Just as this brief volume brings together teachers and scholars from law and rhetoric, each chapter connects the relevant rhetorical theories and applies them to current legal problems." -- Publisher site.

"Although Native Americans have been subjugated by every American government since The Founding, they have persevered and, in some cases, thrived. What explains the existence of separate, semi-sovereign nations within the larger American nation? In large part it has been victories won at the Supreme Court that have preserved the opportunity for Native Americans to 'make their own laws and be ruled by them.' The Supreme Court could have gone further, creating truly sovereign nations with whom the United States could have negotiated on an equal basis. The Supreme Court could also have done away with tribes and tribalism with the stroke of a pen. Instead, the Court set a compromise course, declaring tribes not fully sovereign but also something far more than a mere social club. This book describes several of the most famous Supreme Court cases impacting the course of Native American history. The author provides an analysis of canonical American Indian Law cases with historical and legal context and brings a fresh perspective to the issues. Law students, policy makers and judges looking for an introduction to American Indian Law will gain an understanding of this complicated history. This exploration will also appeal to academics interested in a new perspective on old and current cases." -- Back cover.

"Drawing on many previously unpublished letters and records, Stephen Budiansky's definitive biography offers the fullest portrait yet of this pivotal American figure, whose zest for life, wit, and intellect left a profound legacy in law and Constitutional rights, and who was an inspiring example of how to lead a meaningful life in a world of uncertainty and upheaval." -- Publisher site.

"The Question of Law offers an original theory of law, stated as two normative principles. Law is seen having a political foundation, with the question of law thus becoming a question of obedience - whether and in what circumstances it is appropriate to obey the law. Kim further maintains that law should serve the demands of justice." -- Publisher site.

"The stories in The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated capture the complex, and often-awkward dance between legal reform and social change. They are more than compelling portraits of fascinating lives and work, they are revelatory: of generational transitions; of epochal change and apocalyptic anxiety; of the ethical dilemmas that define our age; and of how one can make a positive impact when the odds are stacked against you in a harsh world of climate crisis and ruthless globalization." -- Publisher site.

"The Rights of Indians and Tribes is the most popular resource in the field of Federal Indian Law and has sold over 125,000 copies since it was first published in 1983. This user-friendly book explains Federal Indian Law in a conversational manner, yet is highly authoritative, containing over 2000 footnotes with citation to relevant court decisions, statutes, and agency regulations. It is particularly helpful for tribal advocates, students, government officials, lawyers, and members of the general public. The book uses a question-and-answer format and covers every important subject impacting Indians and tribes today, including tribal sovereignty, the federal trust responsibility, treaties, taxation, criminal and civil authority, water rights, hunting and fishing rights, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. This fully updated edition provides a Foreword by John Echohawk, Director of the Native American Rights Fund." -- Publisher site.

"In this book, Wim Voermans traces the varied and surprising story of constitutions since the agricultural revolution of c.10,000 bce. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, Voermans shows how human evolution, human nature and the history of thought have all played their part in shaping modern constitutions. Constitutions, in turn, have shaped our societies, creating imagined communities of trust and recognition that allow us to successfully co-operate with one another. Engagingly and wittily told, the story of constitutions is vital to understanding our world, our civilizations and, most significantly, ourselves." -- Publisher site.

"'Table talks' have long been a familiar genre of writing for jurists, theologians, politicians, and novelists. In this little volume, leading law and religion scholar John Witte offers thirty sage reflections on how to thrive in law school and in the legal profession; short commentaries on controversial matters of faith, freedom, and family; pithy sermons on difficult biblical texts about law and justice; and touching tributes to a few of his fallen heroes. Most of the thirty texts gathered here were made at seminar tables, academic roundtables, editorial tables, and Eucharist tables. Cast in avuncular form, these texts probe what makes life worth living, work worth doing, history worth reading, and Scripture worth heeding. They aim to provide inspiration and edification for readers at different stages of their lives." -- Back cover.

"This is the first systematic exploration of the nature and extent of sympathy for Nazi Germany at American universities during the 1930s. Universities were highly influential in shaping public opinion and many of the nation’s most prominent university administrators refused to take a principled stand against the Hitler regime. Universities welcomed Nazi officials to campus and participated enthusiastically in student exchange programs with Nazified universities in Germany. American educators helped Nazi Germany improve its image in the West as it intensified its persecution of the Jews and strengthened its armed forces. The study contrasts the significant American grass-roots protest against Nazism that emerged as soon as Hitler assumed power with campus quiescence, and administrators’ frequently harsh treatment of those students and professors who challenged their determination to maintain friendly relations with Nazi Germany." -- Publisher site.

"The Advantage of Being Armed tells the complex legal history of "the right of the people to keep and bear arms," from the Framers to the curious Miller decision in 1939 to the recent debates over the individualist interpretation of the Second Amendment and its incorporation. Robert J. Cottrol and Brannon P. Denning approach the story through the lens of the Black tradition of armed self-defense, arguing that gun control has historically been a way of controlling populations deemed dangerous and threatening-including ethnic minorities, immigrants, enslaved laborers, and impoverished populations. The 39th Congress that passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was persuaded by southern efforts to disarm freedmen that they needed to apply the Bill of Rights to the states. While the Supreme Court initially sought to maintain the antebellum social order, Cottrol and Denning show how the legal establishment changed their minds, paving the way for the Court to eventually get it right.' -- Publisher site.

"The 1991 transition from Justice Marshall to Justice Thomas has had consequences that are still unfolding at the Court and in society. Arguing that the importance of this transition has been obscured by the relegation of these Justices to the sidelines of Supreme Court history, Daniel Kiel shows that it is their unique perspective as Black justices--the lives they have lived as African Americans and the rooting of their judicial philosophies in the relationship of government to African Americans--that makes this succession echo across generations." -- Publisher site.

"Moved by the testimony of tribal leaders and other experts, Boldt pointedly waited until Lincoln's birthday to hand down a decision recognizing the tribes right to half of the state's fish. The case's long aftermath led from the Supreme Court's affirmation of Boldt's opinion to collaborative management of the harvest of salmon and other marine resources." -- Publisher site.

"Weed Rules argues that it's time for states to abandon their "grudging tolerance" approach to legal weed and to embrace a new "careful exuberance" approach. In this thorough and witty book, law professor Jay Wexler invites policy makers to responsibly embrace the enormous benefits of cannabis, including the joy and euphoria it brings to those who use it. The "grudging tolerance" approach has led to restrictions that are too strict in some cases-limiting how and where cannabis can be used, cultivated, marketed, and sold-and far too loose in others, allowing employers and police to discriminate against weed users. Weed Rules shows how focusing on joy and community can lead us to an equitable marijuana policy in which minority communities, most harmed by the war on drugs, play a leading role in the industry. Centering pleasure and fun as legitimate policy goals, Weed Rules puts forth specific policies to advocate for a more just, sensible, and joyous post-legalization society." -- Publisher site.

"A powerful argument for separating immigration enforcement from the criminal legal system, by one of the nation's foremost 'crimmigration' experts." -- Publisher site.

"Drawing on the private papers of the justices and original data, including textual analysis of opinions, this book demonstrates that court majorities engage with dissents that pose a particular threat to the strength and position of the majority opinion-specifically, well-crafted and attention-grabbing dissents from larger, ideologically mixed coalitions. These results suggest that majorities can be persuaded by thoughtful and careful dissenting arguments but must defend against strident appeals to external actors, including the other branches of government, the media, and the public." -- Publisher site.

"The electoral college is the extraordinarily complex mechanism by which Americans choose their president. Is there any justification for such a system, which may elect the candidate who does not receive the most votes? Today, with two of the last five presidential elections having gone to the popular vote loser and the debacle following the 2020 election, the electoral college's flaws are more apparent than ever. In this fourth edition of the definitive book on the electoral college, George Edwards employs rigorous analysis and systemic data to show how the system violates core democratic principles and does not provide the benefits its advocates claim. With a new chapter focusing on the 2020 election, Edwards addresses justifications for the electoral college that were popular among Trump supporters following the 2016 and 2020 elections. Edwards concludes by offering a straightforward approach to selecting the president that maximizes political equality." -- Publisher site.

"Copyright has its roots in eighteenth-century London, where it was first established to limit printers' control of books. But a handful of little-noticed changes in the late twentieth century brought about a new enclosure of the cultural commons, concentrating ownership of immaterial goods in very few hands. Copyright's metastasis can't be understood without knowing its backstory, a long tangle of high ideals, low greed, opportunism, and word-mangling that allowed poems and novels (and now, even ringtones and databases) to be treated as if they were no different from farms and houses. Principled arguments against copyright arose from the start and nearly abolished it in the nineteenth century. Nonetheless, countless revisions have made copyright ever stronger." -- Publisher site.

"Why We Vote is a bold and sometimes daring reconstruction of judicial doctrine giving expression to the democratic aspirations of the Constitution. It shifts the focus from equal protection to the freedom that democracy generates-the right of those who are ruled to choose their rulers. It explains why the protection of that right requires the extension of the franchise to all citizens. It provides the grounds for the rules that facilitate, as a purely practical matter, the exercise of the right to vote, ensure that the vote of one is equal to that of another, and guarantees feasible access to the ballot for independent candidates and new political parties." -- Publisher site.