Of Power and Right: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, and America's Constitutional Revolution Hardcover – January 30, 1992

This 1992 book is a study of the Supreme Court careers of Black (on the Court from 1937 to 1971) and Douglas (on the Court from 1939 to 1975). The book only incidentally analyzes the cases themselves, but discusses the motivations for the positions of Black and Douglas. While a casual observer knows that Black and Douglas were often on the same side in a case, it is the position of the authors of this book that their motivations were quite different. And in the final years of Black's service they often disagreed, this being usually ascribed to Black becoming more conservative in his old age. The authors disagree with this and say that the disagreement is attrubutable to Black's fixation as to the actual words of the Constitution and its Amendments whereas Douglas was more willing to read into the Constitution liberty for people--which Black was not as willing to do. I found the account of the decisions of the Court of much interest and the book was fun to read.