Suchergebnisse

Dedication -- Preface -- Contents -- Chapter 1: Shaping Constitutional Law: The Example of Prisoners' Rights -- Judicial Decision Making and Constitutional Law -- Plan for the Book -- A Short Overview of the Development of Prisoners' Rights -- Chapter 2: Pioneering Litigation: Black Muslims as an Assertive Political Minority -- Black Muslims and the Law -- Muslim Prisoners and Litigation -- The Essential Role in Cooper v. Pate -- The Example of Martin Sostre -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3: The Expansion and Contraction of Rights: Through the Eyes of Justice Marshall

This book examines how Justice John Paul Stevens served as an important defender of rights in criminal justice during his thirty-five year Supreme Court career. It examines his life experiences and judicial opinions to show how the Court's most prolific opinion author defended rights throughout an era of an increasingly conservative Court.

Supreme Court decisions affecting prisoners' rights assumed special importance during the Rehnquist Court era (1986 to 2005) because rapidly expanding prison populations placed more individuals' daily lives under the influence of corrections law. Substantive legal analysis reveals that the Rehnquist Court produced important decisions establishing new analytical tests that helped to guide lower court decisions and counteracted previous expansions of prisoners' rights. In particular, the Rehnquist Court's tests emphasized deference to corrections officials, significant proof thresholds for Eighth Amendment claims, and strict standing requirements for access-to-courts claims.