Thank you Mariner Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. No review was required as a condition for receiving the advance reading copy and no review was promised.
Mr. Book just finished Antidemocratic, by David Daley. I had very high expectations coming into this book, as I had already read two by this author. I had given one of them an A+ and the other an A.
The focus of this book is on how the Republicans have used the courts as their biggest weapon in their war on voting. As Daley correctly points out, the party is no longer interested in winning elections by getting majority support.
Daley does an excellent job dismantling Chief Justice Roberts’s claim that judges are nothing more than impartial umpires. Instead, he shows how they are extreme partisan actors, ruling out for political purposes, not as neutral arbiters of the law. As Harvard Law School professor Charles Fried, former Solicitor General under Reagan, points out “This would become John Roberts’s life work, undermining voting rights and the Voting Rights Act.”
Daley’s profile of Justice Lewis Powell, the original architect of their movement, is one of the great strengths of the book, especially his discussion of City of Mobile v. Bolton. Meanwhile, his profile of the virtually unknown David Horowitz, who was very instrumental in the early days of the movement, is a very valuable addition to the literature.
Antidemocratic’s look at the origins of the Federalist Society and Attorney General Meese’s role in spreading originalism was outstanding. But, he also discusses those who were working behind the scenes to get everything done.
The Supreme Court’s lack of respect for any precedent they don’t like it covered by the book. And so is Chief Justice’s Roberts contempt for oversight and the opinions of the public. In his own words, “They don’t elect us. If they don’t like what we’re doing, it’s more or less just too bad.”
The discussion of the terrible ruling in Shelby County v. Holder was excellent. In that case, the Supreme Court not only declared key provisions of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional, but made it virtually impossible for Congress to fix things in way the court will approve.
The book does an excellent job showing the consequences of the court’s ruling Some examples are the increase in gerrymandering and voter suppression laws that would otherwise have been blocked from going into effect. For example, voter participation in Alabama (where Shelby County is located) fell all the way down to 41% in the first election after the Shelby County decision. That’s the first time it was under 50% since 1986.
The book does an outstanding job talking about gerrymandering and how 50 million people live in states where, in at least one or both chambers of the legislature, the Democrats get more votes for the state legislature, but the Republicans get more seats. As Daley puts it, “Democrats win more votes. Republicans hold power.” And the same thing happens at the federal level. For example, in North Carolina, the Republicans held 10 of their 13 House seats for nearly the entire 2010s, even in years in which the Democrats won the statewide congressional vote.
As Daley points out, even Moore v. Harper, which appears to a victory for voting rights, also contains within itself a potential disaster for presidential elections. Roberts’s ruling contains the means by which the court can play Calvinball—a game in which the only permanent rule is the rules are made up each time Calvin and Hobbes played it—in an upcoming presidential election..
Even prior to reading this, I already had Daley’s Ratf**ked, which was his book on gerrymandering, on my list of books to reread. Now, I am even more looking forward to rereading it. Then, right after finishing the book, I just preordered the audiobook version, so I can enjoy it again when it is released.
Mr. Book gave this book an A+, which also means it is inducted into my Hall of Fame. Amazon, Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A+ equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at this blog, NetGalley and Goodreads. It will also be posted at Amazon, as soon as the book is released to the public on August 6.
Mr. Book originally read this book on May 24, 2024.
