Richard A. Paschal (George Mason University, School of Law - Adjunct Faculty) has posted Book Review of 'One Supreme Court: Supremacy, Inferiority, and the Judicial Power of the United States' by James E. Pfander (The Journal of Politics, Vol. 72, No. 02, pp. 595-596, April 2010) on SSRN. Here is a taste:
- Pfander aims to provide durable answers to three constitutional debates that have produced few satisfying theories. The first is the power of Congress under the Exceptions and Regulations Clause of Article III to withdraw jurisdiction over particular issues and, primarily, to strip the Supreme Court of appellate jurisdiction over certain classes of cases. Second, he analyzes the place of the state courts within the national judicial hierarchy and, specifically, the possible constitutional limitations on Congress’s reliance on the state courts. Third, he is interested in the constitutional legitimacy of non- Article III courts, their relation to the Article III judiciary, and how those principles might apply to the military commissions for Guantánamo Bay detainees.
- This is a sophisticated and important study of the federal courts, and this review has provided only the barest of outlines of Pfander’s elaborate thesis.
