Closing the Courthouse Door: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable

摘要

19 Written by constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, Closing the Courthouse Door: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable presents a critical look at procedural hurdles that prevent people from having recourse for violations of their constitutional rights. His central thesis is that "the most important role of the federal courts is to enforce the Constitution; many doctrines created by the Supreme Court prevent the federal courts from fulfilling this mission; and these should be changed-by Court decision and legislative action." (p.xi).20 Closing the Courthouse Door is presented in seven chapters followed by endnotes and an index. Throughout his engaging work, Chemerinsky weaves incases to support his arguments. In chapter 1, Chemerinsky convincingly argues that the preeminent purpose of the federal courts is to enforce the Constitution. Chapters 2 through 5 introduce and provide a critical analysis of doctrines and procedures that limit access to the courts, including the expansion of sovereign, absolute, and qualified immunity for federal, state, and local governments and their officials; obstacles to standing; the political question doctrine; and restricting habeas corpus. Although chapter 6 is titled "Opening the Federal Courthouse Doors," it focuses on three additional constraints to access: heightened pleading standards, abstention doctrines, and limits to class action lawsuits. In the final chapter, Chemerinsky offers the state secrets doctrine as another limitation and presents his closing thoughts.