Mark Tushnet

Bio: Mark Tushnet is an academic researcher from Harvard University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Constitution & Constitutional law. The author has an hindex of 31, co-authored 267 publications receiving 4754 citations. Previous affiliations of Mark Tushnet include Georgetown University & Valparaiso University.

Taking the Constitution Away from the Courts

Abstract: This text challenges hallowed American traditions of juidicial review and judicial supremacy, which allow U.S. judges to invalidate "unconstitutional" governmental actions. By examining a wide range of situations involving constitutional rights, the author urges the reader to to take responsibility for protecting their liberty. The book puts forward the idea of the creation of a constitutional law in which judicial declarations deserve no special consideration, citing the McCarthy incident in the 1950s as a prime example of how the judicial branch failed to enforce the will of the people.

Weak Courts, Strong Rights: Judicial Review and Social Welfare Rights in Comparative Constitutional Law

Abstract: Preface ix Acknowledgments xv Part I: Strong-Form and Weak-Form Judicial Review Chapter 1: Why Comparative Constitutional Law? 3 Chapter 2: Alternative Forms of Judicial Review 18 Chapter 3: The Possible Instability of Weak-Form Review and Its Implications 43 Part II: Legislative Responsibility for Enforcing the Constitution Chapter 4: Why and How to Evaluate Constitutional Performance 79 Chapter 5: Constitutional Decision Making Outside the Courts 111 Part III: Judicial Enforcement of Social and Economic Rights Chapter 6: The State Action Doctrine and Social and Economic Rights 161 Chapter 7: Structures of Judicial Review, Horizontal Effect, and Social Welfare Rights 196 Chapter 8: Enforcing Social and Economic Rights 227 Table of Cases 265 Index 269

The NAACP's Legal Strategy against Segregated Education, 1925-1950

Abstract: The NAACP's fight against segregated education - the first public interest litigation campaign - culminated in the 1954 Brown decision. While touching on the general social, political, and economic climate in which the NAACP acted, Mark V. Tushnet emphasizes the internal workings of the organization as revealed in its own documents. He argues that the dedication and the political and legal skills of staff members such as Walter White, Charles Hamilton Houston, and Thurgood Marshall were responsible for the ultimate success of public interest law. This edition contains a new epilogue by the author that addresses general questions of litigation strategy, the persistent question of whether the Brown decision mattered, and the legacy of Brown through the Burger and Rehnquist courts.

Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth

Abstract: This article conceptualizes community cultural wealth as a critical race theory (CRT) challenge to traditional interpretations of cultural capital. CRT shifts the research lens away from a deficit view of Communities of Color as places full of cultural poverty disadvantages, and instead focuses on and learns from the array of cultural knowledge, skills, abilities and contacts possessed by socially marginalized groups that often go unrecognized and unacknowledged. Various forms of capital nurtured through cultural wealth include aspirational, navigational, social, linguistic, familial and resistant capital. These forms of capital draw on the knowledges Students of Color bring with them from their homes and communities into the classroom. This CRT approach to education involves a commitment to develop schools that acknowledge the multiple strengths of Communities of Color in order to serve a larger purpose of struggle toward social and racial justice.

Critical Race Methodology: Counter-Storytelling as an Analytical Framework for Education Research:

Abstract: This article addresses how critical race theory can inform a critical race methodology in education. The authors challenge the intercentricity of racism with other forms of subordination and exposes deficit-informed research that silences and distorts epistemologies of people of color. Although social scientists tell stories under the guise of “objective” research, these stories actually uphold deficit, racialized notions about people of color. For the authors, a critical race methodology provides a tool to “counter” deficit storytelling. Specifically, a critical race methodology offers space to conduct and present research grounded in the experiences and knowledge of people of color. As they describe how they compose counter-stories, the authors discuss how the stories can be used as theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical tools to challenge racism, sexism, and classism and work toward social justice.

Just what is critical race theory and what's it doing in a nice field like education?

Abstract: Critical race theory (CRT) first emerged as a counterlegal scholarship to the positivistand liberal legal discourse of civil rights. This scholarly tradition argues against the slow pace of racial reform in the United States. Critical race theory begins with the notion that racism is normal in American society. It departs from mainstream legal scholarship by sometimes employing storytelling. It critiques liberalism and argues that Whites have been the primary beneficiaries of civil rights legislation.Since schooling in the USA purports to prepare citizens, CRT looks at how citizenship and race might interact. Critical race theory's usefulness in understanding education inequity is in its infancy. It requires a critique of some of the civil rights era's most cherished legal victories and educationalreform movements, such as multiculturalism. The paper concludes with words of caution about the use of CRT in education without a more thorough analysis of the legal literature upon which it is based.

Creating Something from Nothing: Resource Construction through Entrepreneurial Bricolage:

Abstract: A field study of 29 resource-constrained firms that varied dramatically in their responses to similar objective environments is used to examine the process by which entrepreneurs in resource-poor environments were able to render unique services by recombining elements at hand for new purposes that challenged institutional definitions and limits. We found that Levi-Strauss's concept of bricolage—making do with what is at hand—explained many of the behaviors we observed in small firms that were able to create something from nothing by exploiting physical, social, or institutional inputs that other firms rejected or ignored. We demonstrate the socially constructed nature of resource environments and the role of bricolage in this construction. Using our field data and the existing literature on bricolage, we advance a formal definition of entrepreneurial bricolage and induce the beginnings of a process model of bricolage and firm growth. Central to our contribution is the notion that companies engaging in bri...

Law's Empire

Abstract: Scholars of culture, humanities and social sciences have increasingly come to an appreciation of the importance of the legal domain in social life, while critically engaged socio-legal scholars around the world have taken up the task of understanding "Law's Empire" in all of its cultural, political, and economic dimensions. The questions arising from these intersections, and addressing imperialisms past and present forms the subject matter of a special symposium issue of Social Identities under the editorship of Griffith University's Rob McQueen, and UBC's Wes Pue and with contributions from McQueen, Ian Duncanson, Renisa Mawani, David Williams, Emma Cunliffe, Chidi Oguamanam, W. Wesley Pue, Fatou Camara, and Dianne Kirkby. This paper introduces the volume, forthcoming in late 2007. The central problematique of this issue has previously been explored through the 2005 Law's Empire conference, an informal but vibrant postcolonial legal studies network.