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Arlington, Va—Appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court are one of the crown jewels of any presidential election.  And this election year is no different.

A new book featuring the 12 worst U.S. Supreme Court decisions of the modern era (The Dirty Dozen:  How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom, Sentinel/Penguin, ISBN: 9781595230508, price: $25.95) highlights how important it is that our next president appoint judges willing to overturn precedents that undercut fundamental American rights.

	“With wisdom, learning, concision and lucid prose, Levy and Mellor go straight to the sad, central truth of the American judiciary.  We have created a system in which nine people are presumed to be smarter than 300 million.  The Dirty Dozen shows us the results of this foolish assumption—the twelve worst Supreme Court rulings.  Or, that is to say, the twelve worst Supreme Court rulings so far.” — P.J. O’Rourke
	Cato Institute held a book forum entitled “The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom.” The event featured the book’s authors, Robert A. Levy, a Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, and William Mellor, President and General Counsel of the Institute for Justice, and was moderated by Roger Pilon, also of the Cato Institute. Watch the event in streaming video and download the podcast (mp3)

How did we get from our Founders’ Constitution, which established a strictly limited government, to today’s Constitution, which has expanded government and curtailed individual rights?  That’s the story of The Dirty Dozen:  How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom.

Sub-Prime Mortgages vs. Private Contracts

“Right now, Congress is considering coercing lenders into restructuring sub-prime mortgages and waiving foreclosure rights,” said Bob Levy, co-author of The Dirty Dozen, and senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute.  “The only reason Congress can even consider such a radical solution is because of the misguided 1934 Supreme Court Blaisdell decision (covered in Chapter 3 of The Dirty Dozen), which raised almost exactly the same issue and effectively erased the Contracts Clause from the Constitution.  This paved the way for modern-day politicians to rewrite today’s mortgages without any hope that the Court will step in to uphold otherwise legally binding contracts.”

Handgun Limits vs. the Right to Bear Arms

“Ordinary citizens in dangerous neighborhoods, like those in Washington, D.C., are barred by the government from defending themselves in their homes with handguns because of a Supreme Court case from 70 years ago,” Levy said.  (That case, Miller, is featured in Chapter 6 of The Dirty Dozen.)  “Constitutionally enshrined Second Amendment rights have basically been thrown out the window leaving citizens and their rights at risk.  If our Second Amendment rights are to be restored and respected, that precedent must be clarified or overturned - either by the current Court or one influenced by justices appointed by the next president.”

Campaign Finance Restrictions vs. Free Political Speech

“A passionate, thoughtful, provocative, and eminently readable book by two of America’s most influential libertarian lawyers and legal thinkers.” — Eugene Volokh, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law.

Judicially endorsed limits on participation in political campaigns under the guise of campaign finance reform are also among the 12 decisions featured in The Dirty Dozen.  Significantly, campaign finance restrictions have been a hallmark of Senator John McCain’s political career with the McCain-Feingold Act.

“Basic First Amendment principles have been sacrificed in the name of campaign finance reform,” said Chip Mellor, president and general counsel of the Institute for Justice, and co-author of The Dirty Dozen.  (Chapter 5 features the 2005 McConnell decision as well as the 1976 ruling in Buckley v. Valeo.)  Mellor said, “It is perverse to think that political speech should be more vulnerable than Klan speech to government regulation.  And it is naive at best to think that money can somehow be legislated out of politics.  There is only one way to move in that direction:  Reduce the significance of politics by reining in the power of the federal government.  Lacking the courage to do that, the Supreme Court has endorsed a federal statute that protects incumbents, blocks organized dissent, undermines political parties, and in general degrades the political process.”

Eminent Domain vs. Property Rights

The most recent case featured in The Dirty Dozen is also perhaps the best known and most despised by the general public—the 2005 Kelo ruling, which allowed non-blighted private homes to be taken by the government for private development projects.

	“Levy and Mellor offer fascinating insights on twelve of the most important and controversial cases of our time.  Readers will gain new appreciation for the Supreme Court’s role in affecting their lives and liberties. With that appreciation will come heightened understanding of the stakes in future Supreme Court nominations. — Nadine Strossen, President, American Civil Liberties Union

Mellor said, “Kelo left private property owners without meaningful constitutional protection to resist the use of eminent domain in the name of economic development.  The Court’s nearly blind deference to legislative bodies ultimately allows local planners to run roughshod over isolated and vulnerable members of society.  Eminent domain used for economic development imposes an enormous drain on taxpayer dollars for no discernible benefit.  The transfer of one person’s property to another private party, merely for an illusory promise of more jobs or a higher tax base, lies beyond the pale.”

At this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, Senator McCain said, “I intend to nominate judges who have proven themselves worthy of our trust that they take as their sole responsibility the enforcement of laws made by the people’s elected representatives . . . .”

Mellor noted, however, that the Court must not merely rubberstamp laws passed by Congress, but has a duty to ensure those laws pass constitutional muster.  “The Court must apply the Constitution to ensure that the legislative and executive branches respect the constraints the Constitution imposes on them.  Supreme Court nominees should possess a respect for original text coupled with a readiness to implement its meaning.”

Senator Barack Obama said, “We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom.  The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old.  And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges.”

Those criteria, Levy warned, raise questions about whether Senator Obama’s appointees would follow the rule of law or enforce policy preferences based on class, gender, sexual preference and age. “Judicial activism created new constitutional rights out of whole cloth.  Only principled and consistent judicial engagement can reinstitute a government of limited and enumerated powers.”

Best-selling author P.J. O’Rourke said of The Dirty Dozen, “With wisdom, learning, concision and lucid prose, Levy and Mellor go straight to the sad, central truth of the American judiciary.  We have created a system in which nine people are presumed to be smarter than 300 million.”

Praise for The Dirty Dozen

“Alexander Hamilton described the judiciary as being the “least dangerous” branch of government.  Bob Levy and Chip Mellor show, in a highly readable form, that Hamilton was absolutely wrong.  In non-legalese language, The Dirty Dozen shows how the U.S. Supreme Court has twisted the Constitution into something that would be unrecognizable by its framers.”

— Walter E. Williams, John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University

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“Levy & Mellor may seem to have drafted a negative book.  After all, the theme is a dozen cases the Supreme Court got wrong.  But don’t be deceived - the sharp, intelligent aim of this volume is anything but negative.  The Dirty Dozen is an accessible and tightly-reasoned affirmation of human liberty, which, the authors remind us, is not zero-sum; it does not depend upon the unjust diminution of the liberty of another.  Levy & Mellor reveal how the price of liberty grows higher not only when the Justices attribute to the federal government power it was not given, but also when we complacently assume government possesses a wisdom, it cannot possibly have.  Levy & Mellor are the Hamilton & Madison of our age. Like these venerable founders, the defense of liberty for Levy & Mellor is not hobby, but calling, and it depends as much upon recognizing how the structural features of the Constitution are the original bill of rights, as it does upon construing the text, as the Ninth Amendment proclaims, “not to deny or disparage” the natural rights of the people, including - as is far too often forgotten - the right to pursue a lawful occupation.  The clarity of Levy & Mellor’s defense of liberty reflects their life-long dedication to its defense in writing and in litigation, and in the sincere belief that if we are well informed, in the hearts and minds of their countrymen.  This book has timeless value; in an election year, it is indispensable.”

— Douglas W. Kmiec, Chair & Professor of Constitutional Law, Pepperdine University; Constitutional Legal Counsel to President Ronald Reagan

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“Since my days in law school I’ve been looking for one place to examine all the structural damage done over the years of our history by the Supreme Court to the Constitution and the freedoms it was intended to protect. Here it is. How could life-tenured justices whose oath is to uphold the Constitution instead have cut holes into the parts of it they feared, restructured the parts of it they misunderstood, and avoided the parts of it they wish were not there? Bob Levy and Chip Mellor, two champions of minimal government and maximum individual freedom, have exposed the intellectual dishonestly, group biases, and political preferences on the part of the Supreme Court justices who have destroyed the Constitution. The first step toward a return to a vibrant Constitution restraining a voracious federal government and protecting a society of free persons is understanding what went wrong throughout history, how Big Government took over, and how liberty was lost. The Dirty Dozen provides in clear and compelling language the beginning of the understanding that we need.”

—Hon. Andrew P. Napolitano, Senior Judicial Analyst, Fox News Channel

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“If you’re like most people, you probably have only a dim sense of how many of your constitutionally guaranteed freedoms the Supreme Court has taken away. The question is: Do you really want to know? If so, The Dirty Dozen is the book for you. Bob Levy and Chip Mellor spell it out clearly and powerfully. You’ll never look at a confirmation hearing the same way.”

— Tucker Carlson, host of MSNBC’s Tucker

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 “The Dirty Dozen should remind everybody that elections matter. One of the President’s greatest powers is the nomination of Supreme Court justices. Their decisions affect Americans—for ill and for good—for generations to come. The next time someone says elections don’t matter, tell them to read The Dirty Dozen.”

— Larry Elder, KABC Radio

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“Our Founding Fathers gave us a federal government with enumerated, and strictly limited, powers, and a Bill of Rights which guaranteed our personal freedoms.  How then did we come to living under a government that exercises virtually unlimited powers while steadily eroding our freedoms?  Bob Levy and Chip Mellor answer this question in this lucid, devastatingly compelling analysis of the Supreme Court decisions that turned the constitution on its head.  Straightforward and clear to the layman, while brilliantly reasoned and meticulously researched for the attorney, The Dirty Dozen tells the story of how the Supreme Court has undermined our liberty.”

— Patrick J. Toomey, President, Club for Growth