Reviews and Comments

Breyer argues against strong Textualism as practiced by the conservative bloc of the Supreme Court today. Instead, he argues for the method of judicial interpretation he used during his tenure on the court, which emphasizes pragmatism and "workability" of the constitution. Instead of strictly adhering to one framework, Breyer thinks judges ought to take into account the perspectives of many frameworks (including originalism and textualism, but also legislative intent, democratic principles, and the practical effects on the legal system/society).

The book includes many case studies which Breyer uses to point out the shortcomings of textualist analysis by showing how such a reading leads to unintuitive, counterproductive, or unworkable outcomes. I found the book useful to expand my understanding of canons of analysis and as a good anti-textualism argument.

Decided not to keep reading past the introduction.

A great, concise plea to advance mankind's behavior in the era of powerful technology. Much of what Szent-Györgyi discusses is still politically and scientifically relevant today, but there are cases of historical events since the books publication significantly shifting the context of the book (but mostly in interesting ways, not invalidating the core message of the text). His optimism in scientific thinking is painful to read, knowing how short we've come up.

In the appendix of my copy is a "Psalmus Humanus" along with six humanist prayers from the author.

Couple of gems, but mostly the stories are small-town character pieces of mixed quality. Not Vonnegut's finest.