Laboratory of Justice

About this book

"In this history, legal scholar David L. Faigman wrestles with moral and political conundrums, revealing the tension between the conservative nature of the law and the swift evolution of scientific knowledge. Because constitutional law works by precedent, the Supreme Court embeds the science of earlier times into our laws today - sometimes in the service of facts and truth, sometimes in the service of judicial expediency." "In recent decades, the Court has been confronted more and more by such questions of fact. Today's Court faces a range of issues - affirmative action, gay marriage, the right to die, privacy in a high-tech society, and the place of the word "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance - that all rest to some degree on science. As has been the case over the past two hundred years, many of these battles will come down to the scientific sensibilities of individual justices. To ensure our liberties in posttechnological America, Faigman argues, the Court must embrace science rather than resist it, turning to the lab as well as to precedent."--Jacket.