Judicial Power and American Character: Censoring Ourselves in an Anxious Age

Clearly written and forcefully argued, this book is an audacious examination of judicial power as an integral part of an increasingly anxious culture. This original work is an unusual effort to relate modern constitutional politics to the moral character of American culture. Writing in non-technical language, Nagel demonstrates how judicial decisions embody wider social tendencies toward moral evasiveness, privatization, and opportunism. He shows that constitutional interpretation is often used to stifle political disagreement and, ultimately, to censor our own beliefs and traditions.