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May 3, 2005
BOOK REVIEW: 'Men in Black,' 'Courtroom 302' Depict Players at Top of Justice Totem Pole
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| "Courtroom 302" by Steve Bogira (Knopf, 416 pages, $25.00) and "Men in Black" by Mark R. Levin (Regnery, 300 pages, $27.95) |
Reviewed by David M. Kinchen
Hinton News Network Book Critic
Hinton (HNN) —Blame it on John Marshall. Blame it on the inflated title: Supreme Court: Sounds like it ought to be behind the Pearly Gates. Blame it on the fake Greek temple near the Capitol so elaborate that Justice Benjamin Cardozo suggested in jest that the justices ride elephants to work. Or just blame it on judges who act too conservative or too liberal or too - dare we say it - judgmental!
Americans have long held conflicted views about judges and courts - on the order of "can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em" - but much more complicated. The old saw that a judge is a lawyer who knew a mayor, a governor or the president of the U.S. has truth in it, but it's more complicated than that. Just how complicated is the subject of an excellent article - "Why We Hate to Love Judges" by Hiller B. Zobel - in the May 2001 issue of American Heritage magazine. The article, which came in the wake of the judicial fracas engendered by the 2000 Presidential election, is worth looking up: I recommend it to anyone looking for a brief but comprehensive look at this eternal U.S. love-hate relationship.
These issues are explored at greater length in two new books that deserve a wide audience: "Men in Black" and "Courtroom 302."
"Men in Black" by Mark R. Levin (Regnery, 300 pages, $27.95) is a conservative lawyer's examination of the Supreme Court - very conservative indeed, as one would expect from its introduction by Rush Limbaugh. Liberals and centrists with open minds - this is possible, isn't it? – should be able to find something useful in Levin's examination of an institution that looms large - maybe too large - in our political spectrum. On the other hand, the subtitle –"How The Supreme Court is Destroying America" - may preclude any such objectivity. Levin is also a talk show host in New York City who deplores the "activist" aspect of many justices, as opposed to the so-called "originalist" philosophy of justices who concentrate on interpreting cases based solely on the Constitution.
Segue from the 70-year-old Greek temple housing the U.S. Supreme Court - designed by Cass Gilbert, the same architect who created West Virginia's Capitol building - to a massive, gritty court complex on Chicago's Southwest Side. That's the locale of "Courtroom 302" by Steve Bogira (Knopf, 416 pages, $25.00), one of the best depictions of the criminal justice system I've seen in years. Bogira, a reporter for the Chicago Reader, a widely distributed and read free weekly in the Windy City, spent "A Year Behind the Scenes in An American Criminal Courthouse" - to use the book's subtitle. Specifically, Bogira chronicles the events happening in Judge Daniel Locallo's courtroom in the Cook County Criminal Courthouse - the nation's largest and busiest - at 26th and California during 1998.
Unlike the Supreme Court justices dissected by Levin in "Men in Black," Locallo had to face the voters in 1998 in what is called in Illinois a retention election. In 1998, Locallo had a controversial case before him that produced substantial opposition to his retention by the voters of his mixed ethnic district. The trial of an Italian-American youth who beat up and almost killed a black teen venturing into an all-white neighborhood threatened Locallo's career. Frank Caruso Jr. was accused of chasing and kicking 13-year-old Lenard Clark when Clark and another African-American youth, Clevan Nicholson, came into Caruso's Bridgeport neighborhood seeking free air for Clark's bike tires. When Caruso is convicted, many white people in Bridgeport - the home neighborhood of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley and his son, the current Mayor Richard M. Daley - decide to vote against Judge Locallo.
Bogira does a wonderful job of telling the real story of the court system that is so hyped on even well-regarded court dramas like "Law & Order." Most of the defendants in Locallo's Courtroom 302 are black or Hispanic and most are being tried on drug offenses. He captures the daily drama of the court complex, which also includes the massive Cook County Jail. He rides on jail buses, talks to guards and public defenders and spends much of his time talking to defendants and their families.
Levin takes a fairly straightforward historical approach to the Supreme Court, going back to the days of Chief Justice John Marshall and the seminal Marbury v. Madison decision of 1803. This decision on the so-called "Midnight Judges" of President John Adams - who had appointed Marshall in 1801 just before he left office - was an attack on President Thomas Jefferson's orchestrated move to abolish judgeship positions named by Adams as he was leaving office. In Marbury, Marshall established the precedent of judicial review of Congressional acts, making him the first "activist" on the high court. Jefferson and Marshall were longtime Virginia rivals and Marshall was just as crafty and scheming as the lanky red-haired president.
From that slippery slope, Levin relates, the Supreme Court demonstrated the error of its ways in the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of 1856, which Levin says violated several sections of the Constitution. Another "activist" ruling was the "separate but equal" Plessey v. Ferguson segregation ruling handed down in 1896, Levin says. Later ones include Roe v. Wade on abortion and Korematsu v. United States, a 1944 Supreme Court decision upholding the presidential order of 1942 which rounded up and shipped Japanese-American citizens and Japanese nationals off to internment camps. Prompted by racist Californians, including future liberal icon Earl Warren, the 1942 order was a clear violation of the Fifth Amendment's due process clause, Levin states. The 1944 decision by the "activist" court - which included such liberal icons as William O. Douglas and Hugo Black – ignored the Constitution in declaring this shameful act legal, Levin asserts.
Levin piles up case after case - including many recent ones in the wake of 9/11 - attacking the "activist" positions of both liberals and conservatives. He includes a "rogue's gallery" of truly awful appointments to the Supreme Court, including notorious racist and anti-Semite James C. McReynolds, appointed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. This man was such a vehement anti-Semite that he refused to participate in an official court photograph because he would have had to stand next to Louis Brandeis, the first Jew appointed (also by Wilson, in 1916) to the high court. McReynolds was only one of many incompetent, mentally deranged, prejudiced or just plain felonious individuals appointed by presidents and confirmed by the Senate. Several of the justices ended up unable to participate in court deliberations because of various debilitating medical problems which they refused to acknowledge by resigning. Included in this category were Black, Thurgood Marshall and Douglas, the longest serving justice.
"Men in Black" is an impressive book, which to liberals and supporters of an "activist" court would probably be considered preaching to the converted. Conservatives will find within this tome plenty of ammunition to support their case against a Supreme Court which delights in making laws without the authorization of the Constitution.
Taken together, "Men in Black" and "Courtroom 302" are impressive evaluations of our judicial system today and how it got that way.
Levin's audio-streamed talk show can be heard from 6 to 10 p.m. weeknights on www.wabcradio.com
"Courtroom 302":
"Men in Black":
www.chireader.com
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More Book Reviews by David M. Kinchen
— 10/28/04 BOOK REVIEWS: Bill Kurtis on the Death Penalty; Ms. Moffett Becomes a Teacher
— 11/15/04 BOOK REVIEW: Roth Envisions a Frightening 'What If?' in 'The Plot Against America'
— 11/24/04 BOOK REVIEWS: Bush, Blair and Iraq; A Shrink at Nuremberg; Updike's Sexy Geek; Potomac Fever Smites an Academic
— 12/15/04 BOOK REVIEWS: 'Past Imperfect' Covers Complexities of History, Plagiarism Issues; 'His Excellency' Reveals George Washington's Accomplishments
— 12/29/04 BOOK REVIEWS: ‘de Kooning’ Chronicles Rise of American Art Supremacy; ‘Adams vs. Jefferson’ Shows That Controversial Presidential Elections are Nothing New
— 01/17/05 BOOK REVIEW: Max Hastings on Germany's 'Armageddon' as Allies from West, East Conquer Third Reich
— 01/24/05 BOOK REVIEW: ‘Images of America: Huntington’ Displays Glorious Architecture of West Virginia’s First Planned City
— 01/29/05 BOOK REVIEW: ‘Auschwitz’ Personalizes Horror That Should Never Be Forgotten
— 01/31/05 BOOK REVIEWS: ‘Election 2004’ Shows How Bush Won; ‘Santa Cruz’ is Captivating Picture History of California’s Laid-Back Resort town
— 02/06/05 BOOK REVIEW: 'French Women Don't Get Fat' is a Delightful Way to Read Yourself Thin; Monsieurs: There's No Reason Why It Won't Work for You!
— 02/14/05 BOOK REVIEW: ‘Irish Milwaukee,’ ‘Italian Milwaukee’ Capture Flavor of One of America’s Best Cities — And Best Kept Secrets
— 02/17/05BOOK REVIEW: ‘Freedom Rising,’ Vividly Re-Creates Life in Nation's Capital During the Civil War
— 02/21/05 BOOK REVIEW: ‘Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?,’ Economist Says There's No Danger of Housing Melt-Down; Says Media Exaggerates 'Bubble'
— 03/02/05 BOOK REVIEW: 'Freedom Rising' Vividly Re-Creates Life in Nation's Capital During the Civil War
– 03/21/05 BOOK REVIEW: 'Lipstick Jihad' Deals with Family, Career Matters of a Young Iranian-American Journalist
– 04/06/05 BOOK REVIEWS: You Don’t Know Much About History and What You Know is Probably Wrong: ‘The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History’; ‘Unholy Alliance’ Attacks Home-Grown America Haters; Crichton’s ‘State of Fear’ Probes Eco-Terrorism
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