A storm over this court : law, politics, and Supreme Court decision making in Brown v. Board of Education / Jeffrey D. Hockett.

Print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Barriers to desegregation -- The attitudes of the justices -- Law, anticipated violence, and the loyalty to the court -- A sense of the court's mission -- The relevance of foreign affairs -- Domestic political considerations.

On the way to offering an analysis of the basis of the Supreme Court’s iconic decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the author critiques an array of theories that have arisen to explain this decision and Supreme Court decision making in general. Borrowing insights from numerous approaches to analyzing the Court's decision making, this study reveals the inaccuracy of the popular perception that the justices acted upon a shared, liberal preference for an egalitarian society when they held that racial segregation in public education violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. A majority of the justices were motivated, instead, by institutional considerations, including a recognition of the need to present a united front in such a controversial case, a sense that the Court had a significant role to play in international affairs during the Cold War, and a belief that the Court had an important mission to counter racial injustice in American politics.

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