Supreme Court jurisprudence of the 1960’s, 1970’s,
and early 1980’s but by ratifying it. The Court did
trim away at the margins of such rights granted by
earlier Courts as the right to abortion, the right to re-
fuse many police searches and seizures, and the right
to engage in unlimited speech of any character. It
also trimmed the broadest reading of congressional
powers, for example, by limiting congressional
power to take property under eminent domain, and
to regulate public schools. However, seen in their to-
tality, the Court’s decisions were not a major scaling-
back of recent jurisprudence. The Courts of recent
decades have made vast changes in American social,
economic, and political life. The Supreme Court of
the 1990’s for all extents and purposes accepted
these changes as valid precedents. By affirming in
the main the jurisprudence of its predecessor
Courts, the 1990’s Supreme Court helped legitima-
tize the expansion of its own role, as the Court itself
acknowledged in itsPlanned Parenthood of Southeast-
ern Pennsylvania v. Caseydecision, and hence of the
Court’s impact on the everyday lives and decisions of
Americans.
Further Reading
Bradley, Craig, ed.The Rehnquist Legacy. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2006. Collection of
essays examining the impact of the decisions of
the Rehnquist Court.
Breyer, Stephen.Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Demo-
cratic Constitution.New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
- A member of the liberal wing of the 1990’s
Court offers his views on constitutional interpre-
tation.
Gerber, Scott.First Principles: The Jurisprudence of Clar-
ence Thomas.New York: New York University Press, - Examines the decisions of the most conser-
vative and controversial justice of the 1990’s.
Hensley, Thomas.The Rehnquist Court: Justices, Rul-
ings, and Legacy.Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2006. A
volume in the ABC-Clio Supreme Court Hand-
book series, this comprehensive reference work is
organized around the question of whether the
Rehnquist Court brought about a counterrevolu-
tion in Supreme Court jurisprudence.
Keck, Thomas M.The Most Activist Supreme Court in
Histor y: The Road to Modern Judicial Conservatism.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Keck
argues that the Rehnquist Court has reaffirmed
the activist decisions of preceding Courts while
engaging in its own conservative brand of ac-
tivism.
Lang, Carolyn.Religious Freedom and Indian Rights:
The Case of “Oregon v. Smith.”Lawrence: University
Press of Kansas, 2000. In-depth study of the
Court’s most significant free exercise case of the
1990’s.
Maltz, Earl, ed.Rehnquist Justice: Understanding the
Court Dynamic.Lawrence: University Press of Kan-
sas, 2003. Legal scholars take varying positions on
the Supreme Court jurisprudence of the Rehn-
quist Court.
Perry, Barbara A.“The Supremes”: Essays on the Current
Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.New
York: Peter Lang, 1999. Analyzes the jurispru-
dence of the individual members of the 1990’s
Court.
Strum, Philippa.Women in the Barracks. The VMI Case.
Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002. In-
depth study of the case ofUnited States v. Virginia
barring exclusion of women from Virginia Mili-
tary Institute.
Thomas, Clarence.My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir.
New York: HarperCollins, 2007. Justice Thomas
provides his version of his 1991 confirmation
hearings, the most contested in Supreme Court
history.
Howard BrombergSee also Abortion; Bush, George H. W.; Clinton,
Bill; Clinton’s impeachment; Conservatism in U.S.
politics; Crime; Culture wars; Ginsburg, Ruth Bader;
Hill, Anita; Liberalism in U.S. politics; Line Item
Veto Act of 1996;Planned Parenthood v. Casey;Romer v.
Evans;Rust v. Sullivan;Shaw v. Reno; Thomas, Clar-
ence. Sustainable design movement
Definition Architecture and design philosophy
based on economic and environmental
sustainability
The sustainable design movement of the 1990’s encouraged
architects and other designers to design products that would
benefit people and the environment while still creating a
profit.
An early landmark in sustainable design philosophy
was the publication of the Hannover Principles in826 Sustainable design movement The Nineties in America