The Price of Letting Courts Value Solidarity: The Judicial Role in Liberalizing Welfare

This chapter distills the book’s responses to two pivotal questions. If a sweeping, politically driven curtailment of fundamental liberties happens again, would the Korematsu majority’s highly deferential 1944 approach be expanded to new purposes to legitimize present-day transgressions of essential democratic liberties? Or would the courts undertake watchful care over those liberties by scrutinizing the government’s claim of necessity so that the talismanic incantation of national security itself does not enervate the judicial role? The chapter coalesces prior themes by first linking rubber-stamp judicial passivity to the deeply problematic shadow side of national security law; second by highlighting Korematsu and its coram nobis reopening as a cautionary tale; third, by repudiating Korematsu’s unconditional deference to the government’s claim of necessity; fourth by implicating judicial legitimacy in affirming Korematsu’s stated commitment to careful judicial scrutiny; and finally, by moving toward justice by breaking a key link in the chain of enduring injustice.

Download Full-text

Debates and Challenges to the Judicial Role

The Judge, the Judiciary and the Court ◽

10.1017/9781108859332.006 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 81-186

Keyword(s):

Judicial Role

Download Full-text

The Authority of the Sunnah According to the Qur’anic Text

American Journal of Islam and Society ◽

10.35632/ajis.v30i4.310 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 48-72

Author(s):

Ahmad Eldridge Cleaver

Keyword(s):

Islamic Law ◽

Legal Authority ◽

Insight Into ◽

Judicial Role

This study analyzes what the Qur’an ascribes to the Sunnah of Muhammad and highlights the existence of indicators within the Qur’anic text as to the Sunnah’s significance, role, and legal authority. Insight into its place and role is researched according to the Qur’an, and answers are sought as to its significance in Islamic law and thought. The answers presented are the ones found in the Qur’anic discourse circulating around Muhammad. The analysis, which examines thirty-five Qur’anic verses that mention Muhammad, is organized according to several themes, among them obedience to God and to Muhammad and the latter’s judicial role.

Download Full-text