The Supreme Court and the Development of Law Through the Prism o
This book illuminates the decision-making processes of the US Supreme court through an examination of several prisoners' rights cases. In 1964, the Supreme Court declined to hear prisoners’ claims about religious freedom. In 2014, the Supreme Court heard
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Christopher E. Smith
The Supreme Court and the Development of Law
Christopher E. Smith
The Supreme Court and the Development of Law Through the Prism of Prisoners’ Rights
Christopher E. Smith Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan, USA
ISBN 978-1-137-56762-8 ISBN 978-1-137-56763-5 DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56763-5
(eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016950201 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc. New York
In memory of George F. Cole (1935–2015) Teacher, Mentor, Friend
PREFACE
This book embodies the merger of two interrelated subjects—prisoners’ constitutional rights and the US Supreme Court—that have fueled much of my research and writing over the past 30 years. The very first scholarly article that I published as a graduate student in 1986 focused on the role of judges in prisoner litigation. Decades later, I am still deeply interested in such subjects. Prisons and jails are closed institutions. The public can rarely gain information about what happens in day-to-day conditions and interactions behind the bars and walls. Explosions of violent conflict in these institutions receive news media attention, but there is little opportunity to see the tedium, tension, fear, and frustration that characterize daily life. The public’s perceptions of these institutions are shaped too often by editorial writers’ false assertions about hotel-quality, comfortable living conditions. Even more distorted perceptions emerge from Hollywood’s despicable efforts to make prison rape a humorous subject through the inevitable references to placing frightened comedic actors facing television or movie incarceration in cells with large, menacing cellmates. While individual movies or television series may aspire to greater realism, each script’s demands
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