The Other Rights Revolution: Conservative Lawyers and the Remaking of American Government

297 Pages·2016·5.629 MB·English

by  Jefferson Decker

THE OTHER RIGHTS REVOLUTION
Studies in Postwar American Political Development
Steven Teles, Series Editor
Series Board Members:
Jennifer Hochschild
Desmond King
Sanford Levinson
Taeku Lee
Shep Melnick
Paul Pierson
John Skrentny
Adam Sheingate
Reva Siegel
Thomas Sugrue
The Delegated Welfare State: Medicare, The First Civil Right: Race and the Rise
Markets, and the Governance of the Carceral State
of Social Policy Naomi Murakawa
Kimberly J. Morgan
and Andrea Louise Campbell How Policy Shapes Politics: Rights,
Courts, Litigation, and the Struggle Over
Rule and Ruin: The Downfall Injury Compensation
of Moderation and the Destruction Jeb Barnes and Thomas F. Burke
of the Republican Party, From
Eisenhower to the Tea Party Ideas with Consequences: The
Geoffrey Kabaservice Federalist Society and the Conservative
Counterrevolution
Engines of Change: Party Factions Amanda Hollis-B rusky
in American Politics, 1868– 2010
Daniel DiSalvo No Day in Court: Access to Justice and the
Politics of Judicial Retrenchment
Follow the Money: How Foundation Sarah Staszak
Dollars Change Public School Politics
Sarah Reckhow The Business of America is Lobbying: How
Corporations Became Politicized and
The Allure of Order: High Hopes, Dashed Politics Became More Corporate
Expectations, and the Troubled Quest Lee Drutman
to Remake American Schooling
Jal Mehta Building a Business of Politics: The
Rise of Political Consulting and the
Rich People’s Movements: Grassroots Transformation of American Democracy
Campaigns to Untax the One Percent Adam Sheingate
Isaac William Martin
Prison Break: Why Conservatives Turned
The Outrage Industry: Political Opinion Against Mass Incarceration
Media and the New Incivility David Dagan and Steven Teles
Jeffrey M. Berry and Sarah Sobieraj
The Other Rights Revolution: Conservative
Artists of the Possible: Governing Networks Lawyers and the Remaking of American
and American Policy since 1945 Government
Matt Grossman Jefferson Decker
Building the Federal Schoolhouse: Localism
and the American Education State
Douglas S. Reed
THE OTHER
RIGHTS
REVOLUTION
CONSERVATIVE LAWYERS
AND THE REMAKING
OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
JEFFERSON DECKER
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Decker, Jefferson.
Title: The other rights revolution : conservative lawyers and the remaking
of American government / Jefferson Decker.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2016] |
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016020567 (print) | LCCN 2016009500 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190467326 (E-book) | ISBN 9780190629304 (E-book) |
ISBN 9780190600587 (Online Component) | ISBN 9780190467302 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780190467319 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Cause lawyers—United States. | Law—Political aspects—United States. |
Lawyers—Political activity—United States. | Conservatism—United States—History. |
Law—Political aspects—United States—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC KF299.P8 (print) | LCC KF299.P8 D43 2016 (ebook) |
DDC 320.520973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016020567
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Paperback printed by WebCom, Inc., Canada
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
for Elizabeth, my advocate

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments  ix
INTRODUCTION  1
1. THE NEW LIBERAL STATE  12
2. DEFENDING ENTERPRISE  39
3. PACIFIC VIEWS  55
4. SAGEBRUSH REBELS  73
5. THE POLITICS OF RIGHTS  95
6. GOVERNING FROM THE RIGHT  123
7. MOUNTAINS AND SEA  153
8. TO THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE  183
EPILOGUE: REGULATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS  211
Notes  229
Guide to Archival Sources  269
Index  271

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A great many people and institutions made this book possible. At Columbia
University, I enjoyed the intellectual mentorship of Alan Brinkley (my
dissertation advisor), Elizabeth Blackmar, Eric Foner, Ira Katznelson,
Robert Lieberman, Sarah Phillips, Anders Stephanson, and John Witt.
Fellow graduate students Ben Coates, Ansley Erickson,  Courtney
Fullilove, Nicole Hemmer, Amy Offner, Jason Petrulis, Ben Soskis,
Rachel Van, and Neil Young helped make graduate school survivable.
Matthew Connelly and Line Lillevik threw me a lifeline when I desper-
ately needed one. Since Columbia, I have had the privilege of teaching
American studies and political science at Rutgers University. My col-
leagues in both departments have given me a comfortable environment
to grow as a teacher and produce as a scholar. I am especially grateful
to my department chairs (Ben Sifuentes, Allan Isaac, and Lou Masur in
American studies; Cynthia Daniels, Jan Kubik, and Rick Lau in polit-
ical science) for their support and encouragement. Thanks also to the
scores of Rutgers students who have helped me fine- tune the arguments
in this book by asking perceptive questions or making thoughtful com-
ments in my undergraduate courses.
I am grateful for the material support this project has received from
Columbia, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the American
Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming, Spencer Library at the
University of Kansas, the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University
of Virginia, the Eisenhower Foundation, the Samuel I. Golieb program
at NYU Law School, the American Council of Learned Societies, the
Mellon Foundation, and Rutgers University. Special thanks to David
Brady at Stanford; Rick Ewig at Wyoming; William Crowe and Becky
Schulte at Kansas; Brian Balogh, Sidney Milkis, and Chi Lam at the
Miller Center; William Nelson, Daniel Hulsebosch, and Shirley Gray
at NYU; Joyce Lee and Nicole Stahlmann at the ACLS; and Doug
Greenberg and James Swenson at Rutgers.
David McBride has been a wonderful editor for Oxford University
Press, and Steven Teles has been a perfect series editor. This book is
much better for the close reading and helpful comments of the two
reviewers they lined up. A number of other scholars and friends have