Landmark Supreme Court Cases: The Most Influential Decisions of the Supreme Court (Facts on File Library of American History)

Although other works, such as The Oxford Guide to U.S. Supreme Court Decisions (Oxford, 1999), Encyclopedia of the U.S. Supreme Court (Salem, 2000), and Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments (CQ Press, 2003), provide information on landmark cases, this one succinctly describes the backgrounds of more than 350 "most important" cases and offers insight into their significance and effects on American life. The authors give no criteria for selecting these particular cases, but all seem significant in their impact.

The cases are arranged alphabetically under 15 subject categories such as "Abortion," "Freedom of Religion," "Jurisdiction," and one catch-all category, "Additional Cases." The latter includes cases that addressed the death penalty, eminent domain, blue laws, and trials of captured enemies by military tribunal, to name a few. Each entry features the case title, legal citation, year of decision, key issues, history, summary of the arguments, aftermath, significance, and related cases. Most entries are no more than two pages long. There is a detailed index that enables users to find specific cases or topics. A 13-page glossary includes the expected legal terms and a few technological terms, such as CD-ROM, database, and microfiche. Recommended readings at the end of each entry, a list of sources by case, and a brief bibliography direct the reader to other works.

This source should be useful to anyone wanting to study the development and impact of the U.S. Supreme Court and to anyone who wants to understand the significance of those few cases (approximately 150 of the 7,000 filed each year) that make it through the selection process and are heard there. Readers can grasp the Court's evolving power by using the chronologically arranged table (although it oddly skips from 1989 to 2003 even though this work includes some cases from the intervening years). They can also see attitudinal changes in the Court by studying the various cases under each subject heading. Recommended for academic, public, and high-school libraries.