Our Social Justice Book Club at the Lake Travis Community Public Library will be discussing this book this month...
“Supreme Inequality” by Adam Cohen.
The book has a lot of useful information about how the U.S. Supreme Court serves the rich and powerful to maintain dominance over society.
It is written from a liberal point of view; such, it omits many of the most important cases the United States Supreme Court has dealt with which has taken up more than a little bit of its time... the rights of Communists.
This is an important shortcoming of the book.
But, the author does point out to what lengths those in power who represent the wealthy few will go in order to assure the Supreme Court does not deviate from its originally intended purpose to maintain the wealthy employer class in power even though the author does not use such class language.
It’s unfortunate the author, Adam Cohen, left out any references to the cases against the Communists because he claims to advance the idea that the Court is biased against the poor and workers, which is true, but without including any reference to the myriad of cases involving the denial of rights of Communists to participate in the political life of the country the author presents a weak case for his arguments.
One has to wonder how it is any author could have written a book making the case that the United States Supreme Court is biased against workers, the poor, the racially oppressed, women and against a progressive agenda without citing these cases involving Communists.
Obviously anyone, such as Cohen, who claims to be an authority on the Supreme Court when it comes to such decisions, could not have inadvertently missed the very important cases involving Communists in all of these struggles so one must assume the author is intellectually dishonest in not citing Supreme Court cases involving government and corporate and government repression of Communists which came before the Court.
With this important shortcoming in mind, the book is still a very important read; but, like with any writer associated with the New York Times, one must not only read between the lines but be willing to do a lot of independent research with an open mind.
The author does prove his point that the U.S. Supreme Court has been the enforcer for a more unjust America for many decades... if not for most of the history of this country.
The author does not even do much as touch the many Supreme Court cases involving the hideously fascist-like Communist Control Act even though mentioning the devious and abhorrent attacks by the FBI, other government agencies and politicians on the greatest of all defenders of democracy and worker’s rights to ever sit on the United States Supreme Court, William O. Douglas.
Nor does Cohen delve into the despicable deportations of Communists from the United States like the noted Abd distinguished scientist Nadia Barkman who was deported from the United States to Israel based on her activism as a youth member of the the Young Communist League who played such an important role working with the leader of auto workers, Phil Raymond, in laying the groundwork for organizing auto workers.
Apparently New York Times journalists like Adam Cohen have a very difficult time overcoming their anti-Communist biases even when truth, objectivity and intellectual honesty require such.
United States District Court Judge Noel P. Fox asked me while Zibwas defending my rights in his Court why I was relying on so many minority opinions written by William O. Douglas to make my case? My response was, “Because Douglas was right.”
Judge Fox responded by saying, “I agree with you about Douglas having been right; but my decisions in this court have to be based on the U.S. Supreme Court decisions which have been on the wrong side of justice.”
Cohen, really doesn’t get into what it is going to take to create a U.S. Supreme Court majority on the side of workers, the poor, the racially oppressed because he, himself, like so many faux liberals, has a class bias based on anti-Communism, restricting his vision.
To Cohen’s credit he does not indulge in outright red-baiting although his lack of attention to any of the most important U.S. Supreme Court cases which involved Communists involved in the struggles of workers, the poor, the racially oppressed and women are never so much as mentioned.
The closest Cohen comes to citing the cases of Communists, is the case of Lillian Hellman- the friend and fellow traveler of many Communists (although Cohen does not cite her work with Communists) being hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee with Abe Fortas, later to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice assisting her.
Cohen’s book should be seen, as limi TV ted as it is, as part of the struggle to defend and advance democracy... just understand Cohen leaves many important matters covered- out of sight and out of mind.