Tamanaha on the Progressive Struggle with the Courts

Brian Z. Tamanaha, Washington University in Saint Louis School of Law, has posted The Progressive Struggle with Courts: A Problematic Asymmetry, which is forthcoming in The Progressives’ Century, ed. Stephen Skowronek, Stephen Engel, and Bruce Ackerman (Yale University Press).  Here is the abstract:

In a century-long battle revolving around courts, conservatives are defenders of the rule of law, while progressives are the champions of justice. This has created an asymmetry, with conservatives occupying the high rhetorical ground and progressives struggling to square their position with the judicial duty to apply the law. This essay explores why progressives find themselves hooked on this asymmetry and what they might do to extricate themselves from it.

The paper is the product of a conference of the same name held at Yale last November.