KEEPING THE FAITH: A Cultural History
of the U. S. Supreme Court

John E. Semonche

 

 

Prepublication Reviews

"A thoughtful, balanced and perceptive account of the Supreme Court in American government and politics. . . . A sweeping historical survey, richly informed."
     Herman Belz, University of Maryland

 

"In his illuminating study of the significance of the Supreme Court in American public culture, Professor Semonche contends that, from the very beginning, the Justices have played an unappreciated role in shaping American identity and binding us together as a nation. Readers will be fascinated by this challenge to the fashionable naysayers, for Semonche offers a much cheerier view of the performance of the high priests of our civil religion."
     William E. Leuchtenburg, Author of The Supreme Court Reborn

 

"An innovative study of the history of the Supreme Court that draws imaginatively on concepts of culture in general and civic religion in particular. Every student of the Court will benefit from Semonche's insightful analysis that has as much to say about the values that bind Americans as it does about constitutional law and the justices."
     Kermit L. Hall, Ohio State University

 

"An excellent analytical history of the role and function of 'the high priests of the American civil religion.' Semonche has succeeded ably in weaving both the theory and the practice of the high tribunal into his historical presentation, and he never lets the reader forget that the Court plays a most significant role as an actor within the culture. . . . A welcome addition to the literature in the field; Semonche reasons comprehensively, and he writes engagingly."
     Henry J. Abraham, University of Virginia

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Synopsis

Synopsis of John E. Semonche's Keeping the Faith: A Cultural History of the U.S. Supreme Court

When so much contemporary social commentary, whether scholarly or popular, concerns and emphasizes what divides Americans as a people, be it race, ethnicity, class or gender, it is indeed refreshing to find a book that seeks and finds some order amid the chaos. In a tour de force, the author, who is both a historian and lawyer, has written a fascinating history of the Court, not as a political or legal institution but rather as a most significant cultural one. Without denying the value of more traditional approaches, he consistently, and with substantial evidence stretching over two centuries, argues that the Court in interpreting the Constitution and furthering a rule of law has helped promote and shape both American identity and American unity. It has consistently ministered to the pluralistic society by making meaningful and operative a civil theology. Using the construct of a civil religion and giving it a functional definition, he is able to explain how an emphasis upon individuals and their rights works to produce a common identity and national community.

The author takes the metaphor that the justices on the Court are high priests and gives it analytical dimension by looking at how they justify their decisions. In presenting excerpts from these opinions, he shows how they often explain their decisions as deductions from certain civil theological premises. Over time the deductions from these premises have changed dramatically, though the premises themselves have not. In a relativistic world where it is fashionable to deny the existence of a common morality, the construct of a civil religion seeks to highlight the moral dimension that the Court brings to its task of interpreting the words of the fundamental law, as justices perform both priestly and prophetic roles within the civil religious structure. The Court defines the culture in terms of its aspirations and goals, promotes unity through the nationalization and protection of individual rights and through the recognition of what Americans share in common, educates the citizenry as to core values, works to reduce the gaps between what is and what should be, and finally, repels threats to exclusion and widens the embrace of the national community.

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Table of Contents

    Acknowledgments..............................................ix

 INTRODUCTION:  THE TIES THAT BIND.................................1
					

 1  "IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD," 1620-1791....................13


 2  ESTABLISHING THE PARAMETERS OF PRIESTLY DUTIES, 1790-1821.....39
					

 3  EXPOUNDING THE HOLY WRIT IN TROUBLED TIMES, 1810-1860.........69
								

 4  INTERPRETING NEW AND OLD HOLY BOOKS: PART I: BEGINNING
    TO WIDEN THE CIVIL RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY, 1860-1917............101

									    
 5  INTERPRETING NEW AND OLD HOLY BOOKS: PART II: PROTECTING
    PROPERTY AND OTHER INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS IN THE CHANGING 
    ECONOMY, 1864-1917...........................................135
								    

 6  RESPONDING TO NEW CRISES AND EXPLORING THE IMPLICATIONS
    OF THE CIVIL THEOLOGY, 1917-1941.............................169
							    

 7  SEARCHING FOR THE MEANING OF LOYALTY WITHIN THE AMERICAN
    CIVIL RELIGION, 1940-1959....................................215
	`			

 8  STRUGGLING TO EQUALIZE JUSTICE AND EXPAND THE CIVIL 
    THEOLOGY'S REACH: PART I: THE MATTER OF RACE, 1954-1997......263
							    

 9  STRUGGLING TO EQUALIZE JUSTICE AND EXPAND THE CIVIL 
    THEOLOGY'S REACH: PART II: OTHER MATTERS INCLUDING 
    GENDER AND SECTARIAN RELIGION, 1962-1997.....................307
							

10  MAKING THE SCRIPTURES ON INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS NATIONALLY 
    OPERATIVE, 1960-1997.........................................351
								

CONCLUSION: THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY.............................399
								    
   Notes.........................................................407

   Justices of the Supreme Court.................................465

   Case Index....................................................469

   Subject Index.................................................483

   About the Author..............................................501

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Ordering Information

Keeping the Faith: A Cultural History of the U.S. Supreme Court, written by John E. Semonche and published in 1998 by Rowman & Littlefield, is available from the publisher or through local or "virtual" bookstores. The hard cover book is 499 pages long. The ISBN number is 0-8476-8985-9.

This book may be purchased (US $39.95 plus $3 postage & handling for first copy) directly from the publisher:
     Rowman & Littlefield
     15200 NBN Way, P.O. Box 191
     Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214-0191
     U.S.A.
          Toll Free Phone Number: 1-800-462-6420
          Toll Free Fax Number: 1-800-338-4550

Such "virtual" book stores as Amazon Books and Barnes & Noble will have copies available.

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This page was created by John Semonche. It was last updated in October, 2003. If you have any questions or comments, you may contact Semonche here.