Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring about Social Change? »

Gerald Rosenberg is associate professor of political science and lecturer of law at the University of Chicago. He is a member of the Washington, D.C., bar.

Liberals have acclaimed, and conservatives decried, reliance on courts as tools for changes. But while debate rages over whether the courts should be playing such a legislative role, Gerald N. Rosenberg poses a far more fundamental question—can courts produce political and social reform?

Rosenberg presents, with remarkable skill, an overwhelming case that efforts to use the courts to generate significant reforms in civil rights, abortion, and women's rights were largely failures.

"The real strength of The Hollow Hope . . . is its resuscitation of American Politics—the old-fashioned representative kind—as a valid instrument of social change. Indeed, the flip side of Mr. Rosenberg's argument that courts don't do all that much is the refreshing view that politics in the best sense of the word—as deliberation and choice over economic and social changes, as well as over moral issues—is still the core of what makes America the great nation it is. . . . A book worth reading."—Gary L. McDowell, The Washington Times

Booknews

While debate rages over whether the courts should be relied on as tools for legislative change, Rosenberg asks the more fundamental question--can courts produce political and social reform? His argument suggests that efforts to use the courts to generate reforms in civil rights, abortion, women's rights, and other issues have been largely failures. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

List of Tables and Figures     ix
Preface to the Second Edition     xi
Preface to the First Edition     xiii
Introduction     1
The Dynamic and the Constrained Court     9
Civil Rights
Introduction     39
Bound for Glory? Brown and the Civil Rights Revolution     42
Constraints, Conditions, and the Courts     72
Planting the Seeds of Progress?     107
The Current of History     157
Abortion and Women's Rights
Introduction     173
Transforming Women's Lives? The Courts and Abortion     175
Liberating Women? The Courts and Women's Rights     202
The Court as Catalyst?     228
The Tide of History     247
The Environment, Reapportionment, and Criminal Law
Introduction     269
Cleaning House? The Courts, the Environment, and Reapportionment     271
Judicial Revolution? Litigation to Reform the Criminal Law     304
Same-Sex Marriage
Introduction     339
You've Got That Loving Feeling? The Litigation Campaign for Same-Sex Marriage     342
Confusing Rights with Reality: Litigation for Same-Sex Marriage and the Counter-Mobilization of Law     355
Conclusion: The Fly-Paper Court     420
Epilogue     430
Appendices
Black Children in Elementary and Secondary School with Whites: 1954-72     433
Blacks at Predominantly White Public Colleges and Universities     436
Black Voter Registration in the Southern States: Pre- and Post-Voting Rights Act     437
Laws and Actions Designed to Preserve Segregation     438
Method for Obtaining Information for Table 4.1 and Figure 4.1     440
Illegal Abortions     441
Method for Obtaining Information for Tables 8.1A, 8.1B, 8.2A, and 8.2B, and for Figures 8.1 and 8.2     444
Coding Rules and Methods for Obtaining Information for Tables 13.3, 13.4, 13.5, 13.6, and 13.7     446
Case References     449
References     457
Index     513