An Investigation Into a Revolution in Jurisprudence Enacted by the United States Supreme Court

Abstract

The Spirit of this treatise is to attain a better and more thorough understanding of the judicial revolution initiated by the Warren Court and its continuance into the early years of the Burger Court. Through the examination of some of these decisions it can clearly be shown the change in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence in the latter half of the twentieth century. Fairness became the law of the land and a break from precedent meant that activists controlled the destiny of the Court. Never before had this branch of government yielded its power to address problems in the formal sphere of American society. Before this period the Federal Judiciary had not carried its powers so far; however, Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), Baker v. Carr, 396 U.S. 186 (1962), and Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) exhibit a significant change of procedure, unprecedented in its history to address issues of such profound moral and social significance. During the era of the Warren Court and into the Courts beyond, a significant change in the Court occured. Here judicial techniques and reasoning coalesced to unknown standards. The Court during this era attempted to justify this by imposing political and moral uniformity across wide areas of American life. To better understand this change in the Court this paper will examine the issues that relate to federalism, jurisdiction, and controversy of these aforementioned cases. This analysis will provide incite into these Courts and allow reflection upon the dramtic revolution in Constitutional law. A better understanding of the occurences of this period will allow for a more adept study of the present Court. However before we set the stage, we will first review the history of the Court prior to this revolutionary era with an emphasis on the evolution of constitutional law and the emergence of a new jurisprudence held by the Supreme Court Justice.

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