The Burger Court

...The result is predictable, fragmented, often conflicting decisions which are almost useless as precedents and which manifest"a powerful aversion to making fundamental value choices...

...Indeed, Adler's writing style is masterful, But finally she is too ungenerous with her readers...

...Burger's inability to either intellectually, politically, or administratively master Commonweal: 346 the job of Chief Justice (the editor, a political scientist, as is Shapiro, accurately notes that Burger is a "man of limited capacity and no discernible coherent philosophy...

...Since the laity is not familiar with the subject matter, in context the essay has little relevance to the professed theme of the work...

...He describes the rise in the last two decades of Japanese indus~y, the U.S...

...The reason for the failure to fully engage the issues outlined above is twofold: first, the book's organization -eleven essays, only two of which (along with Anthony Lewis's brief foreword) even purport to be overviews of the Court's general performance -- and secondly, the peculiar personal and judicial characteristics of the present Justices...

...In short, just your typical eighties' woman...

...As an example the USW takes up the consumer electronics btlsiness: "that industry lost 63,000 jobs to targeting by Japanese and other governments," say the steelworkers in making a case for a fair resolution of "American international trade problems...

...Davidson is particularly strong in making his argument that we are in economic competition with Japan, just as we are in the military sphere with the Soviet Union...

...What happens finally is convincin and tiauntin :' g --Publishers f~.Veekly At bookstores or call TOLL FREE (8OO) 638-3030 Harper a) Row 18t7 1 June 1984:347...

...This collection of eleven essays admirably succeeds in explaining what the Court has done and why few today -- except in the pages of Commentary and The Public Interest -even expect judicial deference to other branches of government...

...First, she goes to Ireland, and then to her destination where she will find solitude for healing, to Orcas Island...

...It is as if these tales come together to applaud the muses in Godwin's life, but also to lay claim to the terrifying occurrences in the life of the writer: loneliness, emptiness, visits from onlookers and thieves of creativity...

...The Asian "bulwark of democracy" has actively participated in thwarting the aspirations of hundreds of thousands of American blue collar workers...

...all are packed full of useful information and analyses...

...As in Godwin's collection, Adler's'novel is laced with the stuff of fiction...

...Has there, instead, been guerrilla warfare...

...I s i d o r e S i l v e r W HAT are we to make of a "conservafive" Supreme Court which, in the last thirteen years, (a) "constitutionalized" the fight of a woman to have an abortion, (b) unanimously curtailed some egregious claims of the "imperial presidency" by telling its most notorious exponent that he had to turn over documentary evidence of criminaiity to a judge, and (c) in one authoritative swoop of the judicial pen, invalidated parts of some 200 federal laws permitting a legislative veto over presidential activities...

...Since an "activist" and conservative Supreme Court can readily demolish precedent, we can join in the collective amazement that the great Warren Court constitutional landmarks, Baker vs...

...It is truly a matter fit for ironists...

...Japan & the professors THE ANAZING RACE William Dsvidson John Wiley, $17.95, 225 pp...

...None is easy reading...

...Inevitably, the quality of the essays differ -- especially since two appear to have been written several years ago (they call 1977-79 cases "recent") and were not revised or updated...

...She creates a character, though, who is not y o u r everyday female New York writer, since her character's travels take her around the world and her conversations are sprinkled with ruminations on everything from Nabokov to Resolution 242 to the PLO...

...In attempting to explain how we got into this mess, here are three books...

...None should be in your suitcase for a holiday, but each is worthwhile if you have time and patience...

...The book's an-, swers to the first two questions are unclear, while, of course, any response to the third must be speculative...

...From Professor William Davidson at the University of Virginia there is the / book with the best title -- The Amazing Race...

...Board of Education (desegregation), and Miranda vs...

...Will the Court's present mood of benign acceptance continue if Ronald Reagan has the opportunity to appoint a batch of new Justices should he be re-elected...

...The familiar and unique prose style pervades this second novel...

...We follow our character through her international jaunts as she begins to rid herself of the anguish of this broken love fffair...

...If Reaganism is extended to the High Court, then things may change drastically, especially if a new (or perhaps the old) Rehnquist becomes a l~der.Then, what Blasi terms "rootless activism" may be transformed into something much more novel and disquieting than what we have become accustomed to...

...In fact, the storyline isn't all that different from Adler's previous work...

...and Japanese industry and although many of the points have been made before, Davidson writes with clarity and offers the needed reminders of how Japanese firms do not overemphasize short-term profits...

...Adler is a pro at transmitting Kate's frenetic urban lifestyle...

...Naturally, he emphasizes the differences between U.S...

...In the middle are the other four warhorses (excluding Sandra Day O'Connor who is too new to be conveniently categorized) who are intelligent and moderate men...

...Not every reader will be familiar with the ambiance of "Elaine's...

...We read Pitch Dark with the sense that we are unraveling a precious secret and even when we get to the core, we are not wholly satisfied...

...Among the other credible arguments is the fact that a weakening American industrial spirit in the "post-industrial society" has played a part in allowing Japanese domination in certain sectors: "Non-economic values and objectives Ripped a p a r t b y malice, envy an~i rumor a great Catholic u n i v e r s i t y faces a.profound moral crisis...

...As usual, the Court's caution probably mirrors contemporary American political thought (or is it " d r i f t " ? ) . America's intense ideological individualism -- ironic and at most rhetorical in an age of large organizations -- is nowhere more clearly manifested than in the activities of a Court which has created a species of what might be called "situational law...

...Arizona (pre-police interrogation warnings of fights) still stand, Why was there no counter-revolution, since most present Justices would not have voted with Earl Warren had they been on the Court during his tenure...

...WESTERN TECHNOLOGY AND THE JAPANESE ETHOS Mlehio Morishima Cambridge University, $19.95, :207 pp...

...NULTINATIONALISM0 JAPANESE STYLE Terutomo Ozawa Princeton, $8.95, 289 pp...

...WHY RAS JAPAN SUCCEEDED...

...Pitch Dar k is about a journalist, Kate, who is getting over a love affair with a married man...

...spends so much time and effort on military prowess...

...it has now turned into an American domestic economic menace -- a subject which will certainly be argued over at length in the upcoming election year...

...The most quirky discussion, though easily the most readable and enjoyable (to a professional in the field) is Martin Shapiro' s discourse on the changing modes of academic criticism of the Court...

...Clearly, though the book does not emphasize this, the Burger Court is a transitional body -- marking judicial time, except in some areas of criminal justice where, as in its distaste for the Fourth Amendment, a counterrevolution has already occurred...

...Again, all of America seems to be marking time as well...

...Cart ("one man-one vote"), Brown vs...

...The Burger Court (a misnomer) has continued to be a feisty and "activist" body which is, at times, even more unrestrained than was its famous predecessor...

...Drucker's knowledge of corporate structures invests Iris new novel with reality, a feeling intensified by the human weaknesses of people involved in an epic crisis...

...While in Godwin's stories we are always sure that we are reading a fictionalized account of a writer writing about being a writer, in this book, we are more aware of reading Adler's ruminations on her own life as a writer...

...response, and he provides the reader with a few predictions in future areas of Japanese industrial initiatives...

...Conservative & activist TIlE BUR|Ell fJ|ilT Edited by Vincent Bhud Ytde, $25, 3~6 pp...

...She includes the writer's thoughts in the story, as if to unmask the creative process: "Do I need to stylize it, then, or can I tell it as it was...

...Liberals may eagerly accept Blasi's characterization of Justice Rehnquist as "more a debater than a thinker," but will blanch at the description of Justices Marshall and Brennan as "more clever than profound...

...Peter Kovler S APAN'S miracle economy has been a spectacular foreign policy success for several American administrations...

...He attributes the weakening American economic effort to several factors, and is careful to highlight the fact that the U...

...Unlike the other two books, Davidson's main focus is on the economic relations between the United States and Japan...

...or "So there is this pressure now, on every sentence, not just to say what it has to say, but to justify its claim upon our time...

...Renata Adler's second novel, Pitch Dark, will undoubtedly be held up to the toughest scrutiny since her first novel, Speedboat, received overwhelming praises even years ago...

...According to the publisher's promotional copy, Kate's world was "the house in the country and the house in the city, the almost daily visits from Jake, the dinner parties, the neighbors and friends (senators, doctors, ambassadors, poets...

...Indeed, he does a little bit better when he states: "The whole truth is that Japanese firms are willing to forgo profits, period...

...One sees this reflected in United Steelworkers' advertisements where Japan is accused of taking deadly target practice...

...The first point is demonstrated by the nine "subject matter" essays, each of which was penned by a law professor, each manifesting inevitable temptations toward parochialism, comprehensive listing of cases (with brief commentaries), and a preoccupation with analysis of the idiosyncratic views of particular Justices...

...But then the storyline is not the point in this writer's fiction...

...The insiders' nature of this novel makes it less interesting than it might have been...

...The second point above is exemplified by scattered references to Warren...

...This combination is not inspiring to an institution often led by luminaries such as John Marshall and Hugo Black who were fairly unreasonable and unpragmatic visionaries with great powers of persuasion...

...Professor Robert Burt's important discussion of the current Court's attitude toward the family is, in contrast to most of the others, mainly philosophical and a bit thin on data (it is also one of the dated ones...