Constitutional Rights, Moral Controversy, and the Supreme Court

Michael J. Perry holds a Robert W. Woodruff Chair at Emory University, where he teaches in the law school. Previously, Perry held the Howard J. Trienens Chair in Law at Northwestern University, where he taught for fifteen years, and the University Distinguished Chair in Law at Wake Forest University. He has written on American constitutional law and theory; law, morality and religion; and human rights theory in more than sixty articles and ten books, most recently Under God? Religious Faith and Liberal Democracy (Cambridge, 2003) and Toward a Theory of Human Rights: Religion, Law, Courts (Cambridge, 2007).

• Introduction: a partial theory of judicial review; 1. Human rights: from morality to constitutional law; 2. Constitutionally entrenched human rights, the Supreme Court, and Thayerian deference; 3. Capital punishment; 4. Same-sex unions; 5. Abortion; 6. Thayerian deference revisited; Postscript: religion as a basis of lawmaking?

Review of the hardback: 'Perry's book presents an elegant, comprehensive, but remarkably concise exposition of how human rights claims should be treated in constitutional adjudication. On the way, it offers a compelling recapitulation of the moral and legal arguments associated with three of the most contentious issues in American politics: capital punishment, abortion and same-sex marriage. Perry's discussions of these difficult questions are clear, smart, and painstakingly fair.' Richard S. Kay, University of Connecticut School of Law