PositiveThe Washington PostIn The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind, University of Chicago law professor Justin Driver presents a masterful analysis of the Supreme Court’s role in public school students’ constitutional rights more generally ... Across seven chapters organized thematically around different lines of Supreme Court cases, Driver...makes the bold claim that \'the public school has served as the single most significant site of constitutional interpretation within the nation’s history.\' ... The book is best when it goes beyond the justices’ opinions to give broader context to each case, including contemporaneous responses by national and local newspapers and the background stories of courageous student plaintiffs and their parents. Though Driver doesn’t make the connection explicit, many of these stories relate to current societal debates ... Powerful as the book is, however, it feels incomplete on the role of the Supreme Court in public schools...these points (don\'t) undercuts the value of what Driver has written, however.
