Clashing Worldviews in the U.S. Supreme Court

Jim Davids is a practicing attorney in Virginia and former professor of constitutional law.Erik Gustafson is adjunct professor at Lake Michigan College and senior pastor at Lake Michigan Christian Center.Sherena Arrington is a political and public policy consultant in Georgia.

Jim Davids, Erik Gustafson, and Sherena Arrington have written an important book about how individual worldviews shape not only Supreme Court justices, but all of us. To their credit, these evangelical Protestants with an ‘impulse toward orthodoxy’ reached out to me, a mainline pastor with an ‘impulse toward progressivism’ to offer an endorsement. As I read their thoughtful analysis of how the jurisprudence of Rehnquist and Blackmun captures the essential divides in the Americans culture wars, I was also reminded that until we do the hard work of understanding and respecting one another, we are lost.

• Chapter 1: Understanding Competing Worldviews in AmericaChapter 2: The Theological Background and Worldview of Justice BlackmunChapter 3: Chief Justice William H: Rehnquist’s Theology, Philosophy, and WorldviewChapter 4: DeShaney in the Shadow of the Fourteenth AmendmentChapter 5: Zobrest: Aid to All Students, or Only Those Attending Public Schools?Chapter 6: Kaiser Aetna and the Conservative vs: Progressive Battle of Property RightsChapter 7: Webster: Can a State Prohibit the Public Funding of Abortion?Chapter 8: Bowers: Is Homosexual Conduct Within the Liberties Protected by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause?Chapter 9: Two Differing Worldviews and Their Implications for Liberty, Equality, and Justice