The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change?

Gerald N. Rosenberg

Can court rulings really change society, or only when the public and politicians are already moving the same way?

At a glance

You will stop assuming that a landmark ruling changes things by itself
You will understand why a court with no power to enforce needs political allies to make a difference
You will be able to judge how useful lawsuits are for reformers in civil rights, abortion and the environment

Preface
Introduction
1. The Dynamic and the Constrained Court
Part 1: Civil Rights
Introduction
2. Bound for Glory? Brown and the Civil Rights Revolution
3. Constraints, Conditions, and the Courts
4. Planting the Seeds of Progress
5. The Current of History
Part 2. Abortion and Women's Rights
Introduction
6. Transforming Women's Lives? The Courts and Abortion
7. Liberating Women? The Courts and Women's Rights
8. The Court as Catalyst
9. The Tide of History
Part 3. The Environment, Reapportionment, and Criminal Law
Introduction
10. Cleaning House? The Courts, the Environment, and Reapportionment
11. Judicial Revolution? Litigation to Reform the Criminal Law
12. Conclusion: The Fly-Paper Court
Appendices
1. Black Children in Elementary and Secondary School with Whites: 1954-1972
2. Blacks at Predominantly White Public Colleges and Universities
3. Black Voter Registration in the Southern States: Pre- and Post-Voting Rights Act
4. Laws and Actions Designed to Preserve Segregation
5. Method for Obtaining Information for Table 4.1 and Figure 4.1
6. Illegal Abortions
7. Method for Obtaining Information for Tables 8.1A, 8.1B, 8.2A, and 8.2B, and for figures 8.1 and 8.2
Case References