23 Oct 2017
Professor Richard Leiter’s updated supplement to Landmark Supreme Court Cases is now available. The new edition includes new cases from the 2011-2014 terms of the United States Supreme Court, which ended in the summer of 2015.
In those four terms of the Court, forty-six cases were selected as “landmark,” meaning that they are cases that have been featured prominently in scholarship, the press or popular media. Of all the cases, there were a few standouts, such as Obergefell v Hodges, the case that found a constitutional protection for all same sex couples that wish to get married in any state, that had a profound effect on every state and arguably, American society as a whole. Only time will tell if other cases on the list, such as Burwell v Hobby Lobby, will continue to be seen as having as large an impact.
In addition to the cases updating these four terms, the book also added coverage of landmark cases in the field of Environmental and Water Law. Since the majority of landmark legislation regarding clean water, pollution and other environmental issues was passed in the early 1970’s, many of the landmark cases as relatively recent.