Vol. 7 No. 4 ( April 1997) pp. 190-191.
 
THE SUPREME COURT YEARBOOK 1995-1996 by Kenneth Jost. Washington: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1996. 358 pp. Cloth $37.95. Paper $27.95.
 
Reviewed by Thomas G. Walker, Department of Political Science, Emory University.
 
 
THE SUPREME COURT YEARBOOK is an effort by Congressional Quarterly to put up-to-date information on the United States Supreme Court into the hands of students and teachers of constitutional law. The material contained in this volume covers the most recently completed term of the Court. The book is most effective when used in conjunction with a comprehensive constitutional law text that does not undergo annual revision. The 1995-1996 volume is the seventh in the series of such yearbooks.

Congressional Quarterly selected staff writer Kenneth Jost to author the book. A graduate of Harvard University and Georgetown University Law Center, Jost has excellent credentials to undertake the task. He has done a fine job selecting materials for inclusion and presenting text in a way that is both accurate and accessible to undergraduates.

Jost begins with an essay reviewing the ideological content of the Court’s 1995-96 rulings, arguing that the term reveals the reemergence of a centrist ideology. The centrist nature of the Court, however, is the result of offsetting liberal and conservative decisions rather than the justices handing down consistently moderate rulings. The Court was liberal on the rights of gays and women, as well as on freedom of expression, but conservative on issues of race, state power, and crime. Jost’s emphasis is on the positions of the individual justices. He argues the conventional wisdom that justices Kennedy and O’Connor are at the heart of the contemporary Court and largely determine the outcome on divisive cases. Jost discusses each justice’s views on the major issues faced by the Court during the 1995-96 term and also examines the justices’ ideological positions relative to each other. Data on dissenting behavior and interagreement among the justices are presented in tabular form.

Following his discussion of current Court personnel, Jost devotes two chapters to the individual cases decided during the 1995-96 term. The first of these chapters concentrates on the term’s most significant rulings, those on racial gerrymandering, gay rights, sex discrimination, Indian gaming, tort awards, cable regulation, commercial speech , and campaign finance. Jost devotes 3-4 pages of discussion to each major case. The chapter is sprinkled with photographs of individuals who were involved in the cases. In the second chapter the author provides brief summaries (about one-half page) of each of the 75 cases decided with signed opinions. The summaries are well done and provide a good review the Court’s output, but many cover cases of little interest to most undergraduate classes.

In the final chapter, Jost examines the most important cases awaiting decision in the 1996-97 term. He selects those cases from the forty-six disputes that were carried over from the 1995 term and another seven that were added in September of 1996. Jost highlights challenges to the Brady bill, abortion protest rights, and racial districting, but about two dozen cases receive some discussion.

What remains is the book’s appendix, which actually consumes almost sixty percent of the volume. The first section, covering about 150 pages, is devoted to excerpts of the eleven cases from the 1995 term that the author considers to be the most important.
The selection of a term’s most significant cases is always subject to debate, but Jost’s identification of important rulings is consistent with similar lists compiled by other scholars. The excerpting is generally well done, and contains good samplings of concurring and dissenting opinions. The cases run about as long as excerpts found in standard undergraduate textbooks, but in some instances a little longer. The second part of the appendix provides information about "how the Court works." Although quite short, this section reviews the basic information students need to understand how the Court’s term is scheduled, how cases are processed, how oral arguments and conference deliberations take place, and how opinion writing occurs. Next comes the biographies of the current justices. Each runs about two pages in length and is accompanied by a photograph of the justice. Basic background information is given as well as narrative describing the justice’s career before and after appointment to the Court. Finally, Jost includes a glossary of legal terms and reprints the U. S. Constitution.

THE SUPREME COURT YEARBOOK is filled with useful, basic information. It is presented in a factual. but readable manner. There is no attempt to impose any theoretical scheme or advance any partisan position.
 
Although this volume might be a nice addition to some judicial process courses or classes that focus exclusively on the Supreme Court as an institution, its natural market is the conventional undergraduate constitutional law class. In the constitutional law course THE SUPREME COURT YEARBOOK makes sense only when used along with a standard textbook. Whether the YEARBOOK is worth requiring students to purchase in addition to a basic text depends on a number of factors. The first consideration is the range of material found in the instructor’s preferred constitutional law textbook. Some texts provide information on how the Court decided cases, biographical data on the justices, and a glossary of legal terms. And, of course, all such texts reprint a copy of the Constitution. The more the basic text covers these subjects, the less reason to adopt Jost’s volume as a supplement. The second consideration involves how current the basic text is. If the chosen textbook has been revised within the past year, or its publisher provides acceptable annual supplements, the case for adopting a volume like the YEARBOOK is less compelling. Also relevant is whether the students have access to on-line sources that reprint recent decisions. A final consideration involves the nature of the projects or papers the instructor may assign. The YEARBOOK, for example, is a nice resource for discussions or papers that require students to predict how the Court or its individual justices might respond to pending cases. Similarly, the YEARBOOK would be helpful to students who are asked to write briefs or participate in mock oral arguments on emerging issues.

Copyright 1997