By Cliff Sloan
New York: Public Affairs, 2023.
Pp. viii, 484. $32.50 hardcover.
In , 71 U.S., 2, 120–121 (1866), the Supreme Court boldly declared: “The Constitution of the United States is a Law for rulers and people equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances.” This principle has been challenged at points in U.S. history and was certainly sorely tested during World War II. In fact, the work of the Supreme Court during that conflict was largely overshadowed by foreign events. In this readable volume Cliff Sloan examines the court’s leading decisions of the war years. Although generally sympathetic to the work of the justices, he stresses that there were substantial failings. The court’s war legacy, the author concludes, “included some of the best and worst decisions since the founding of the republic” (p.
