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Liberal Champion
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
October 2010
On Sale: October 4, 2010
688 pages
ISBN: 0547149255
EAN: 9780547149257
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
This book is a sweeping and revealing insider look at court history and the life of William Brennan, champion of free speech and public access to information, and widely considered the most influential Supreme Court justice of the twentieth century. Before his death, Brennan granted coauthor Stephen Wermiel access to a trove of personal and court materials that will not be available to the public until 2017. Wermiel also conducted more than 60 hours of interviews with Brennan over the course of six years. No other biographer has enjoyed this kind of access to a Supreme Court justice or to his papers. Justice Brennan makes public for the first time the contents of what Jeffrey Toobin calls βa coveted set of documents,β Brennanβs case histories, in which he recorded the strategizing behind all the major battles of the past half century, including Roe v. Wade, affirmative action, the death penalty, obscenity law, and the constitutional right to privacy. Revelations on a more intimate scale include how Brennan refused to hire female clerks even as he wrote groundbreaking womenβs rights decisions; his complex stance as a justice and a Catholic; and new details on Brennanβs unprecedented working relationship with Chief Justice Earl Warren. This riveting informationβintensely valuable to readers of all political persuasionsβwill cement Brennanβs reputation as epic playmaker of the Courtβs most liberal era.
 Media BuzzOn The Media - December 4, 2010
All Things Considered - November 26, 2010
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