The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America

The Thom Hartmann Hidden History Series

De: Thom Hartmann

Narrado por: Sean Pratt

Thom Hartmann, the most popular progressive radio host in America and a New York Times best-selling author, explains how the Supreme Court has spilled beyond its constitutional powers and how we the people should take that power back.

Taking his typically in-depth, historically informed view, Thom Hartmann asks: What if the Supreme Court didn't have the power to strike down laws? According to the Constitution, it doesn't. From the founding of the republic until 1803, the Supreme Court was the final court of appeals, as it was always meant to be. So where did the concept of judicial review start? As so much of modern American history, it began with the battle between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and with Marbury v. Madison.

Hartmann argues it is not the role of the Supreme Court to decide what the law is, but rather the duty of the people themselves. He lays out the history of the Supreme Court of the United States, since Alexander Hamilton's defense to modern-day debates, with key examples of cases where the Supreme Court overstepped its constitutional powers. The ultimate remedy to the Supreme Court's abuse of power is with the people - the ultimate arbiter of the law - using the ballot box. America does not belong to the kings and queens; it belongs to the people.

©2019 Thom Hartmann (P)2019 Thom Hartmann

A must read for the future generations

Thom Hartman does it again! No one better understands the direction of humanity than this author. A fantastically explained overview of the Supreme Court and its impact on public policy.

Amazing book by an awesome professor

Thank you Thom for helping me to understand the history of our Supreme Court and how we can change it.

puts so much history in a focus that is easy for..

everyone to see. The book book is well-considered, and sane. give it a read.

Great information

Well written with extensive research presented in a way so as to explain why we have the court we do presently.

Very informative.

This piece of history is so important for us, the People, to understand. Now, we need to act accordingly.
Appropriate for teenagers and up.

An excellent concise and useful handbook.

A well thought out collection of arguments that both show the problem and the danger of the Supreme Court and how they originated, but also offers some practical and elegant solutions to the problem.

Informative

I enjoyed Hart man's conversational style of writing. This book was informative, but frustrating in that we have come so far technologically, but have made very little progress in the human rights area. I was born a thousand years too soon. Hopefully greed and selfishness will stop being rewarded some day.

The History we should be taught

As usual Thom Hartmann researches and lays out the key points of the story of where we started and how we got here.

Didn’t realize how the Supremes had changed their position in the governmental tripod to be on top. I had just assumed that the way it is, is the way it was designed. No so...

Also highly recommended is he’s book on the history of the Second Amendment.

Short, incisive, accessible… both a complete summary and a great jumping off point for further research!

Let me premise this with my own political views, so as to address inherent biases- I’m a lefty, the kind of lefty you’d probably find in the 1930’s New Deal Democrats. I feel that government, if it is “The People™️”, is empowered by an electorate to do for them what they can’t do for themselves, providing social welfare, universal access to services, and to guarantee the “pursuit of happiness” vis-a-viś the protection of our unalienable Constitutional rights. This service includes helping and providing for those who did NOT elect them.

The government should work for everyone. That would include the Supreme Court Of the United States (SCOTUS). In this book, Thom Hartman demonstrates how, for much of its existence, that has not been the case with the highest court in the land.

What Hartman demonstrates is how the SCOTUS, from its skeletal construction and lack of explicitly defined enumerated powers in the Constitution (a feature, not a bug), to the conservative legal societies and petro-billionaires hand-picking and flattering their 9 lifetime-appointed, unelected members, is undoubtedly the most out-of-touch, unchecked, and concentrated branch of government for enacting change to policy.

They are the weak link in American federal government.

Conservative congressional leadership saw it, our most effective (and most ambitious) executives saw it, and after this book’s conclusion, after seeing the recalcitrance of a SCOTUS in coming down on the wrong side of jurisprudence in areas like slavery, firearms, segregation, the environment, and reproductive rights, you as a reader will also see it.

I highly recommend both this book and Hartman’s entire “Hidden History” series.

Brilliant report on our bleak prospects

Benjamin Franklin once said 'I gave you a Republic, if you can keep it?'
The founders had foresight, wisdom, hope, honor and knew they were passing on something remarkable.
Have we, the products of hope and dreams and sacrifice and this remarkable gifts chosen to end the last best hope of mankind,
I hope not but the question is not in our stars it is in our time