Reason and Passion: Justice Brennan's Enduring Influence

Prominent jurists, social critics, and legal scholars explore Justice Brennan's impact on civil liberties, criminal justice, equality, and government in this volume, to be published in celebration of the Justice's ninety-first birthday. Tom Wicker, Anna Quindlen, Alan Dershowitz, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and a host of others offer tribute to Justice William J. Brennan's tremendous legacy in a collection of colorful, passionate essays. During his thirty-four years as a member of the Supreme Court, Justice William J. Brennan played a role in shaping American justice and society that is equaled by few others. Holding to his belief that the Constitution must be interpreted with equal parts of "reason and passion," Justice Brennan created a legacy of decisions, opinions, and dissents of remarkable importance in the protection of the dignity of the individual. His contributions include the one-person, one-vote doctrine, a guarantee of equal rights for women, the Roe v. Wade decision, a revolution in journalism (New York Times v. Sullivan), and slowing the proliferation of the death penalty the longest string of sustained dissents in history. Essays describing Justice Brennan's life and work are contributed by Tom Wicker, Anthony Lewis, Alan Dershowitz, Lani Guinier, David J. Garrow, Anna Quindlen, Nat Hentoff, David Halberstam, Derrick Bell, Laurence Tribe, Charles Ogletree, and others including six Supreme Court justices. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist provides a foreword to the volume, and Justice Brennan himself has contributed a piece reflecting on his remarkable tenure.

Reason and Passion is something of a love letter to retired Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. from the Brennan Center, an organization founded by Brennan's former law clerks. In it, three dozen contributors discuss the justice's impact on the law and the nation over the nearly four decades that he served on the Court. The list of admirers includes judges, journalists, law professors, and lawyers, all of whom recall in their essays the importance of Brennan's opinions to the cause of human rights and equality under the law. Brennan, one of the Court's most liberal judges, was a great defender of individual rights, a position that paradoxically increased the strength of the federal government in ruling after ruling.

Not surprisingly, Reason and Passion is weighted in favor of those who agreed with Justice Brennan's politics and reading of the law; contributors include such liberal icons as Lanie Guinier and Anna Quindlen. Even Chief Justice William Rhenquist pulls some punches when discussing his former colleague's place in Supreme Court history, calling him "the intellectual leader of those espousing his views." For those seeking a balanced, critical view of the Brennan years, this is not the book for you; however, if you're interested in Brennan the man, Reason and Passion is a good place to start.