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Steven P Brown, How the Court Became Supreme: The Origins of American Juristocracy, Journal of American History, Volume 111, Issue 2, September 2024, Pages 339–340, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaae107
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The political scientist Ran Hirschl coined the term juristocracy to describe the “all-encompassing judicialization of politics worldwide” (Ran Hirschl, “The New Constitutionalism and the Judicialization of Pure Politics Worldwide,” Fordham Law Review, vol. 75, 2006, p. 754). The dramatic expansion of judicial review in courts around the world convinced him that the judiciary had been wholly transformed. So empowered, there were few areas anymore that could safely be said to be nonjusticiable and out of reach of the courts.
If that sounds familiar, it is because, as Paul D. Moreno argues, there is no better example of juristocracy than the U.S. Supreme Court. His new book offers a broad history of the Court and musters multiple examples to support his thesis but pays particular attention to the influence of the Court's rulings in U.S. v. Carolene Products (1938) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954). He chides justices of all political stripes for advancing judicial supremacy, but he is particularly troubled by the Court's liberal rulings during the past seventy years.
