Out of Order Max Boot New Critic The Criminal Justice

Out of Order by Max Boot New-About The Criminal Justice System

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Max Boot, who wrote the excellent "Rule of Law" editorial column in the Wall Street Journal for several years, has written what he admits to be a polemic. Polemic; need not be a derogatory word when the book is informative and entertaining. Out of Order is aimed at the evils of judges. Some of those evils--corruption and drug dealing--are obvious. Others--such as broad constitutional interpretations, desegregation of Virgina Military Institute, and application of the Miranda doctrine--are debatable, though Boot mostly sidesteps those debates.
Having foresworn objective analysis, Boot also admits to a lack of solutions to the problems he identifies. While he proposes a handful of reforms that do little to address what he criticizes, he rejects a wide variety of radical proposals with a few sentences each. Boot suggests more scrutiny of judges through lawyers' reports and public debate. Left unspoken is the fact that the most prominent public debate of judicial decision-making in the last 12 years involved the author of his introduction, Judge Robert Bork, and came to a result Boot disliked. And Boot's endorsement of rating judges by lawyers ignores that such ratings have as often resulted in unfair criticism of judges (including one Boot singles out as a good egg) for holding lawyers to strict standards as it has to expose incompetence that remains unaddressed.

So what's left is a long list of anecdotes, loosely organized by them, tied together only by their common desire to criticize. Thus, Judge Ito should not have let the Simpson trial be overrun by publicity, but a Chicago judge is hit for earthily barring attorneys from talking to the press.

In one chapter, judges have too much power and abuse it; in another, incompetents fill the judiciary because smart lawyers can have more influence by refusing appointments. The reader is to assume that the mere fact Boot has held these judges up to criticism should be enough.

For a more reasoned analysis of the judicial system, see Richard Posner's The Federal Courts (1996). Those wishing for the polemic can read either Robert Bork's The Tempting Of America (1991) or Ralph Nader's No Contest (1996), depending on your preconceived political bent. --Ted Frank--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
"Judges have assumed unprecedented authority over our lives, usurping powers once delegated to elected lawmakers, based on no solid grounding in the text of either a statute or the Constitution itself," contends Wall Street Journal deputy features editor Boot. Though his somewhat right-leaning biases are occasionally visible beneath his research-based approach, Boot's strong writing and even-handed journalism make for a powerful case. (Former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's turgid introduction, full of references to "radical egalitarianism," is one example of the less-than-transparent politics that inform the book.) With humor and wit, Boot describes a society caught up in a lottery mentality, whereby juries routinely make outrageous punitive damage awards on the flimsiest of cases, and judges?often politically savvy lawyers rather than judicious legal experts?fail to throw out frivolous cases and awards. Only a revision of the system by which we select and promote judges, Boot contends, is likely to change the situation. Boot's impressive grasp of the law and his wry, crystal-clear argumentation makes this book one that will be indispensable to anyone curious to know how we managed to turn our society into a gridlock of litigiousness.
Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Boot, editorial features editor for the Wall Street Journal, finds judges to be incompetent and corrupt; abusive of the particular trust that comes with their office, they advocate unacceptable social experimentation. Still, Boot can find some worthy judges. Federal district judge Richard Matsch of Denver is one even though he is mildly rebuked in Chapter 5 for his intervention in the Denver public school district. And that may be the true weakness of this book. Boot writes with such broad strokes as to become incredible. The compilers of one standard judicial directory, The American Bench (Foster-Long, 1997. 9th ed.), gathered more than 18,000 federal and state judicial biographies. Surely more than a mere handful are competent, ethical, and deserving of our trust. Yet it would be wrong to dismiss this book as unworthy. The concluding chapter advances a number of policy items that merit consideration: judicial term limits, e.g., limits on the jurisdiction of judges to hear constitutional challenges. This book will find favor with more conservative readers. Recommended generally for public libraries.?Jerry E. Stephens, U.S. Court of Appeals Lib., Oklahoma City
Copyright  Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
A one-stop store of conservative complaints about the judiciary; in trying to eliminate lemons, the author mixes oranges and apples. ``We need more public criticism and exposure to hold judges accountable for their actions,'' says Boot, who is editorial features editor for the Wall Street Journal. Citing numerous examples culled from his years of reporting, he takes aim at what he identifies as judicial impropriety: favoring cronies, following ideological prejudice instead of legal precedent, permitting juries to impose enormous liability judgments, going easy on criminal defendants, usurping executive and legislative powers, refusing to follow the voters' will, and engaging in financial corruption. He lays blame on the judicial selection process, which rewards political loyalty above legal competence; at politicians who give judicial nominees too little scrutiny; and at the voters, who seldom pay any attention to elected judges' performance. Although Boot makes no secret of his rightward tilt (he thinks Brown v. Board of Education was bad constitutional law, wants to discard the exclusionary rule on illegally obtained evidence, and seems never to have met a corporate defendant he didn't like), he's intellectually honest; for example, he criticizes conservative judges who have struck down affirmative-action programs crafted by state governments, and even rebukes some of the ideas propounded by Robert Bork, who wrote the book's foreword. But his foundation for lumping together examples of utterly different behaviorsthat the courts ``are trying to provide a remedy for every conceivable `victim' ''is weak. In the end, the only element tying together the judge who takes bribes and the one who gives pro-plaintiff jury instructions in a product-liability case is simply that Boot dislikes both forms of conduct. Neither a screed nor a ``balanced'' report, this well-written and often witty book should give zest to those who agree with Boot's biases and food for thought to those who disagree. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Commentary, Andrew C. McCarthy
Max Boot's news from the front lines of the judiciary is a welcome complement to recent works on judicial power by Robert H. Bork (who contributes a foreword to this book), Richard A. Posner, and others. Out of Order is a much less analytical work than these, but Boot is a superb reporter, and his piquantly related stories stoke the reader's indignation just as they are intended to do.

Still, a polemic based on anecdotes always carries the danger that its subjects, though portrayed as paradigms, may instead be aberrations. Consciously or not, that is sometimes the effect Out of Order conveys, especially in the chapters on corruption and incompetence. Boot is more successful in his attack on judicial activism, where his conclusions do not rest so heavily on the deeds of assorted scoundrels and bumblers.

One wishes Boot had said more about how the malfunctions he catalogs might be mended. The shoddy selection procedures that guarantee a certain percentage of bad judges are, in the end, the handiwork of our lawmakers. Both the legislative and the executive branches are also guilty of helping to promote judicial activism by fudging on politically controversial issues and leaving the courts to sort out the details.

In sum, Max Boot has written a book that ably and entertainingly describes the misdeeds many judges commit. But when it comes to our out-of-order judiciary, what happens in the courtroom may be only the place to start. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description
A book that has sparked controversy on both sides of the political fence. Investigative reporter Max Boot blows the whistle on what he sees as the most destructive branch of government-the judiciary.