New Books at PEOSTA

Reviewed: LJ Jan. 2018 p. 112; CHE 12 Jan. 2018 (new books).
Description: A history of the Supreme Court decision that set the legal precedent for citizen challenges to government surveillance. … Jeffrey L. Vagle draws on the legacy of the 1972 Supreme Court decision in Laird v. Tatum to tell the fascinating and disturbing story of jurisprudence related to the issue of standing in citizen challenges to government surveillance in the United States. It examines the facts of surveillance cases and the reasoning of the courts who heard them, and considers whether the obstacle of standing to surveillance challenges in U.S. courts can ever be overcome. (publ.)

Reviewed: NYT/BR 25 June 2017 p. 15; Choice Sep. 2017 vol. 55 no. 1 (Essential; Top 75 titles recommended for community college libraries); CHE 4 Aug. 2017 p. B2; Top 10 Books of 2017 (PW 30 Oct. 2017 p. 22; NYRB 22 Feb. 2018 p. 19; TLS 13 July 2018 p. 9.
Description: Challenges the myth that America’s cities came to be racially divided through de facto segregation – that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, The Color of Law incontrovertibly makes it clear that it was de jure segregation – the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments – that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 9 June 2017 (new books)
Description: Before 1882, the U.S. federal government had never formally deported anyone, but that year an act of Congress made Chinese workers the first group of immigrants eligible for deportation. Over the next forty years, lawmakers and judges expanded deportable categories to include prostitutes, anarchists, the sick, and various kinds of criminals. The history of that lengthening list shaped the policy options U.S. citizens continue to live with into the present. …[This book] chronicles the unsystematic emergence of what has become an internationally recognized legal doctrine, the far-reaching impact of which forever altered what it means to be an immigrant and a citizen. (publ.)

Note: Library standing order.

Reviewed: CHE 30 June 2017 (new books)
Description: New and emerging surveillance technologies allow government agents to track us wherever we go, to monitor our activities online and offline, and to gather massive amounts of information relating to our financial transactions, communications, and social contacts. In addition, traditional police methods like stop-and-frisk have grown out of control, subjecting hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens to routine searches and seizures. In this work, David Gray uncovers the original meaning of the Fourth Amendment to reveal how its historical guarantees of collective security against threats of “unreasonable searches and seizures” can provide concrete solutions to the current crisis. (publ.)

Reviewed: Choice Apr 2017 vol. 54 no. 8 (Essential; Recommended for Community College Libraries); TLS 9 June 2017 p. 22

Reviewed: LJ 15 Nov. 2017 p. 92
Description: With stories from the front lines, a legal scholar journeys through distinct legal climates to understand precisely why and how the war over abortion is being fought. Drawing on her years of research in El Salvador–the only country to ban abortion without exception–legal scholar Michelle Oberman explores what happens when a country makes ending a pregnancy a crime. She reveals the practical experiences of criminalizing abortion, such as selective enforcement, mistaken diagnoses, wrongful convictions, and a thriving black market in abortion drugs, and she describes how Salvadoran doctors and lawyers collaborate in order to identify and prosecute those suspected of abortion-related crimes. To illustrate how similar draconian polices are enforced in the United States, Oberman turns her attention to Oklahoma, one of the most pro-life states. Through a series of interviews with current and former legislators in Oklahoma, and in stories gathered from crisis pregnancy centers and abortion clinics, Oberman reveals how abortion-related laws become incentives or penalties, nudging pregnant women in one direction or another. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 20 Nov. 2017 p. 84.
Description: Peels away the myths of gun culture to expose the true historical origins of the Second Amendment, revealing the racial undercurrents connecting the earliest Anglo settlers with contemporary gun proliferation, modern-day policing, and the consolidation of influence of armed white nationalists. From the enslavement of Blacks and the conquest of Native America, to the arsenal of institutions that constitute the “gun lobby,” Loaded presents a people's history of the Second Amendment, as seen through the lens of those who have been most targeted by guns: people of color. Meticulously researched and thought-provoking throughout, this is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the historical connections between racism and gun violence in the United States. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 9 Feb. 2018 (new books)
Description: Swirling in the midst of the resurgence of neo-Nazi demonstrations, hate speech, and acts of domestic terrorism are uncomfortable questions about the limits of free speech. The United States stands apart from many other countries in that citizens have the power to say virtually anything without legal repercussions. But, in the case of white supremacy, does the First Amendment demand that we defend Nazis? In this book, legal experts Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic argue that it should not. Updated to consider the white supremacy demonstrations and counter-protests in Charlottesville and debates about hate speech on campus and on the internet, the book offers a concise argument against total, unchecked freedom of speech. Delgado and Stefancic instead call for a system of free speech that takes into account the harms that hate speech can inflict upon disempowered, marginalized people. They examine the prevailing arguments against regulating speech, and show that they all have answers. They also show how limiting free speech would work in a legal framework and offer suggestions for activist lawyers and judges interested in approaching the hate speech controversy intelligently. As citizens are confronting free speech in contention with equal dignity, access, and respect, the authors put aside clichés that clutter First Amendment thinking, and presents a nuanced position that recognizes the needs of our increasingly diverse society. (publ.)

Description: Offers a sweeping overview of the constantly shifting tensions and opinions created by American expectations of privacy versus their collective desire for national security. Briefly touching on the foundations of Constitutional law that underpin privacy, the book concentrates on the current divisions over domestic spying in the wake of recent revelations of NSA domestic surveillance. More than 30 primary sources–drawn from Supreme Court decisions to opinions published in respected contemporary sources–outline key legislation, confront myths regarding privacy, discuss past abuses, and reveal sharply divided opinions regarding current challenges to both privacy and national security interests that pit fears of an emerging surveillance state against a need for national security in a dangerous world. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 22 Jan. 2018 p. 75
Description: This blisteringly candid discussion of the American dilemma in the age of Trump brings together the head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the former attorney general of the United States, a bestselling author and death penalty lawyer, and a star professor for an honest conversation the country desperately needs to hear. Drawing on their collective decades of work on civil rights issues as well as personal histories of rising from poverty and oppression, these leading lights of the legal profession and the fight for racial justice talk about the importance of reclaiming the racial narrative and keeping our eyes on the horizon as we work for justice in an unjust time. (publ.)

Note: Library standing order.

Reviewed: NYT/BR 2 July 2017 p. 27; CHE 14 July 2017 (new books)
Description: Poor mothers in America have been deprived of the right to privacy. The U.S. Constitution is supposed to bestow rights equally. Yet the poor are subject to invasions of privacy that can be perceived as gross demonstrations of governmental power without limits. (publ.)

Description: We live more and more of our lives online; we rely on the internet as we work, correspond with friends and loved ones, and go through a multitude of mundane activities like paying bills, streaming videos, reading the news, and listening to music. Without thinking twice, we operate with the understanding that the data that traces these activities will not be abused now or in the future. There is an abstract idea of privacy that we invoke, and, concrete rules about our privacy that we can point to if we are pressed. Nonetheless, too often we are uneasily reminded that our privacy is not invulnerable-the data tracks we leave through our health information, the internet and social media, financial and credit information, personal relationships, and public lives make us continuously prey to identity theft, hacking, and even government surveillance. (publ.)

Reviewed: CHE 28 July 2017 (new books)
Description: On the surface, Americas commitment to equal opportunity in the workplace has never been clearer. Virtually every company has anti-discrimination policies in place, and there are laws designed to protect these rights across a range of marginalized groups. But …this progressive vision of the law falls far short in practice. When aggrieved individuals turn to the law, the adversarial character of litigation imposes considerable personal and financial costs that make plaintiffs feel like they’ve lost regardless of the outcome of the case. Employer defendants also are dissatisfied with the system, often feeling held up by what they see as frivolous cases. And even when the case is resolved in the plaintiffs favor, the conditions that gave rise to the lawsuit rarely change. (publ.)

Reviewed: NYRB 17 Aug. 2017 p. 33
Description: A constitutional scholar traces the evolution of legal and moral codes that have attempted to legislate sexual behavior from the ancient world to today, citing the agitators, moralists, lawmakers, and Supreme Court justices who have shaped some of the most divisive sexual debates. (publ.)

Contents: Feeling surveillance -- Welcome to the funopticon : the insidious pleasures of ludic surveillance -- Growing up observed : surveillance and childhood -- Watching Walden : surveillance in the wild -- A mighty fortress is our god : selling surveillance in the Bible Belt -- The business of insecurity : inside the new surveillance marketplace.

Reviewed: FA 96(6) Nov./Dec. 2017 p. 139
Description: This is the story of surveillance in Britain and the United States, from the detective agencies of the late nineteenth century to Wikileaks and CIA whistle-blower Edward Snowden in the twenty-first. Written by historian and intelligence expert Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, it is the first full overview of its kind. Delving into the roles of credit agencies, private detectives, and phone-hacking journalists as well as agencies like the FBI and NSA in the USA and GCHQ and MI5 in the UK, Jeffreys-Jones high-lights malpractices such as the blacklist and illegal electronic interceptions. (publ.)

Reviewed: PW 6 Nov. 2017 p. 72; Economist 10 Mar. 2018 p. 83; NPR ("Fresh Air" 3/26/2018)
Description: Reveals how American businesses won equal rights and trans-formed the Constitution to serve the ends of capital. Corporations—like minorities and women—have had a civil rights movement of their own, and now possess nearly all the same rights as ordinary people. Uncovering the deep historical roots of Citizens United, Adam Winkler shows how that controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision was the capstone of a two-hundred-year battle over corporate personhood and constitutional protections for business. (publ.)