Date of Award
Spring 2014
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Major
Public Policy and Law
First Advisor
Adrienne Fulco
Second Advisor
Edward Cabot
Abstract
For the first 150 years of the existence of the judicial power, it was liberals who advocated for the limited role that the Supreme Court should play in America’s constitutional democracy. Since the 1960’s and the Civil Rights Movement, there has been an increase in liberal judicial activism. This thesis seeks to explore the progression of judicial restraint and activism over the history of the Supreme Court through the eyes of Louis Boudin, a constitutional expert writing in the 1930’s. Boudin, a radical liberal, asserts in Government By Judiciary that the judicial branch has been constantly expanding its own power far beyond the scope intended by the Framers of the Constitution as evidenced by ever-increasing activism. Boudin believes the Judiciary is threatening the very existence of the American constitutional democracy. This paper provides and in depth analysis of Boudin’s arguments and applies them to the modern judicial power through the Rehnquist Court.
Recommended Citation
Ballinger, Sarah A., "“Government by a Few Conservative Men”: An Examination of Louis Boudin’s Understanding of the Abuse of the Judicial Power and the Decline of Judicial Restraint by the Supreme Court". Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2014.
Trinity College Digital Repository, https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/609
Comments
Senior thesis completed at Trinity College, Hartford, CT for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and Law.