In a Time of Total War

Joshua E. Kastenberg is currently a military judge in the United States Air Force Trial Judiciary. He is also an adjunct professor of national security law at the National Intelligence University. Previously he was Chief of Operations - International Law Doctrine at the Pentagon and chief legal advisor to the commander US Air Forces in Iraq. Eric Merriam is an Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida, where he teaches in the Legal Studies and Political Science Departments. He previously taught at the United States Air Force Academy and serves as a judge advocate in the United States Air Force Reserve.

• Contents: Preface; Introduction: the federal judiciary in total war, 1939-1945; The ‘Stone Court’, military governance, and World War II; The court, total war, and the citizen, 1941-1945; 1946 the last year of the Stone Court: the aftermath of a total war and the eve of the Cold War; The Vinson Court: communism, national security, and deference to the military establishment, 1946-1952; The last term of the Vinson Court: the height of deference to the military establishment, 1953; Conclusion; Bibliography; Table of cases; Index.

’Kastenberg and Merriam have produced a most impressive study that focuses not only on the Federal Judiciary and national defense, but on the evolving relationship between the Supreme Court Justices and the executive/military establishments. Their work draws on many major manuscript collections, and the result is a fascinating account of the justices' ongoing extra-judicial activities, of whom the worst offender was probably Felix Frankfurter. A must read for students of American legal history and political science.’ Jonathan Lurie, Rutgers University, USA