Democracy and Social Justice

Few Supreme Court justices have had a greater impact on modern life than Louis D. Brandeis. His court opinions have shaped the law and have helped articulate many rights Americans enjoy today. But Brandeis was a prolific author before he ascended to the Court and much of what he wrote then continues to be relevant today. The threat of monopolies, the importance of unions, and the obligations of citizens living in a democracy were just a few of Brandeis's interests that still affect Americans.

Democracy and Social Justice collects many previously unanthologized writings to expand Brandeis's corpus as well as to re-introduce him to a new generation of readers. The title of this book reflects two themes of much of the work collected here and in much of Brandeis's work as a whole. Brandeis was a lifelong proponent of democracy and its promise of equal rights to all. Any person, or institution, that threatened a person's right to freedom and self-improvement was not just an affront to that person, but also to democracy itself.

The articles in Democracy and Social Justice touch on several issues that Brandeis believed threatened democracy, such as monopolies, union busting, and racial discrimination. Of special note, there is also a brief memoir that Brandeis dictated that was recently unearthed.