|
|
|
Book Review
| Justice of Shattered Dreams: Samuel Freeman Miller and the Supreme Court during the Civil War Era. By Michael A. Ross. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003. xxvi, 323 pp. Cloth, $69.95, ISBN 0-8071-2868-6. Paper, $24.95, ISBN 0-8071-2924-0.)
|
Although he wrote hundreds of opinions in the nearly thirty years (18621890) he served on the United States Supreme Court, Samuel Freeman Miller is most famous as the author of the Court's opinion in the Slaughter-house Cases (1873). Writing for a narrow majority, Miller upheld a Louisiana law regulating slaughtering houses and denied that the recently enacted Fourteenth Amendment provided any protection for the white butchers who had challenged it. Miller rested his ruling on what he asserted was the clear purpose of the Reconstruction era amendments, to protect
the freedom of the slave race, the security and firm establishment of that freedom, and the protection of the newly-made free-man and citizen from the oppressions of those who had formerly exercised unlimited dominion over him. (Slaughter-house Cases, 83 U.S. 36, 71 [1873])
|
. . . |
There are about 327 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|