The Courage of Their Convictions

The Courage of their Convictions cites sixteen landmark civil liberties cases and the individuals who challenged laws that they felt impinged upon their personal freedom and who took their battles to the nation’s highest court of law.

“Thank goodness for the sixteen brave men and women who fought official intolerance all the way to the US Supreme Court. And thanks to the Peter Irons for presenting their moving personal reasons, in their own words, for questioning authority. Like Anthony Lewis’s Gideon’s Trumpet, this book presents constitutional law with a human face. It will be a classic.” —Norman Dorsen, President, American Civil Liberties Union New York University Law School

“A fascinating account of how complex, multi-faceted conduct by individual citizens is forced into narrow, legal categories for decision by our judicial system.” —Thomas I. Emerson, Yale Law School

Peter H. Irons is professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of five previous award-winning books. The most recent, The People’s History of the Supreme Court, was awarded the Silver Gavel Certificate of Merit by the American Bar Association.