Courting Disaster: The Supreme Court and the Unmaking of American Law - Hardcover

Martin Garbus is one of the country's leading trial lawyers, appearing before the Supreme Court, teaching law, and arguing trials and speaking as a First Amendment expert throughout the country. He has represented high-profile clients from Lenny Bruce to Václav Havel. A legal commentator for NBC and CBS, he has written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and other publications. He is the author of three previous books and lives in New York City.

"This passionate and provocative analysis of the current Supreme Court is sure to stir a lively debate well beyond legal circles. Marty Garbus is a powerful advocate for his strong views."
--Tom Brokaw

"Mr. Garbus's brilliant book argues that the ideological lock put on our federal court system in the past thirty years by the Republican right wing constitutes a clear and present danger to the basic legal and moral assumptions of a modern democratic republic. He lays out the evidence, all the way up to the Supreme Court, and his case is sound. This work ought to be read by every lawyer, if not every voter, in the country."
--E. L. Doctorow

"A passionate critique of the Rehnquist Court by one of the leading First Amendment advocates in America. Even those who do not share all of Martin Garbus's conclusions will appreciate the vigor and importance of his arguments."
--Jeffrey Rosen, legal affairs editor, The New Republic, and author of The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of Privacy in America

"The current majority of the Supreme Court is embarked on a truly radical revision of many constitutional understandings that had been thought to be settled since the era of the Warren Court or even the New Deal. Martin Garbus offers lay readers an excellent entrypoint into understanding what is going on at the Court and its implications for the lives of the American public."
--Professor Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law and Professor of Government at University of Texas Law School
"Martin Garbus has written a forceful, highly readable assault on the current Court that some readers will find fascinating, others infuriating, but none boring."
Tinsley Yarbrough , author of The Rehnquist Court and the Constitution

"In the past decade a conservative federal judiciary and Supreme Court, eager to rein in traditional civil rights protections, have embarked on a torrent of right-wing judicial activism, amending our Constitution through unwise and unjust decisions. In this important book, noted First Amendment attorney Martin Garbus tells the story of this constitutional insurgency and what it means for the average American. This is a compelling portrait of judicial hubris and a revolution gone wrong."
--Jack M. Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School

"A wise and courageous lawyer, with long experience in our courts, turns his lucid mind and eloquent pen to our judicial system and comes up with a 'J'accuse' for our time. This informed and frightening assessment of our high court must be read by every American who loves liberty and fears tyranny. Our republic is in trouble and Martin Garbus tells us why."
--Alan Dershowitz

"Martin Garbus is one of America's most renowned defenders of the First Amendment. Courting Disaster, his lucid and spirited critique of the conservative judiciary of our time, is a powerful argument for the dangers that the judicial activism of the present Supreme Court poses to civil
liberties."
--Alan Brinkley, Allan Nevins Professor of History, Columbia University

"An ardent defender of our freedom, Martin Garbus reminds us that the Supreme Court directly affects the lives of all Americans. In the last half century, the Court has played a central role in the effort to make America a better and fairer land. In Courting Disaster, Garbus alerts us to what he sees as the current Court's undoing of much of that important work."
--Senator Edward M. Kennedy

"If you haven't read Courting Disaster, you may awaken one morning and ask, 'What happened to America?' This is a clear clarion cry for every American to act before our Constitutional way of life is all but a distant memory."
--Gerry Spence, trial lawyer and author of Give Me Liberty!