"With illuminating case studies and analysis of judicial performance, Lou Fisher very effectively challenges the conventional academic wisdom that the courts are the most reliable protectors of individual rights in the U.S. Indeed, he convincingly undercuts what has routinely been taught for many years about the judicial branch, giving us a new appreciation of the limits of the courts and the central role of Congress in leading the way."-- Mark J. Rozell , Dean of the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs at George Mason University "Louis Fisher is not only one of the nation's pre-eminent constitutional analysts, but a foremost champion of Congress's much-maligned role in the separation of powers system. In this book, Fisher makes an argument found nowhere else--that Congress has played a unique and nearly unacknowledged role as a champion of individual rights. His careful survey of Congress's path-breaking role in protecting and expanding rights for African Americans, women, children, Native Americans, and yes, even religious liberty shows that our national legislature has a proven rights-protection track record. No, that record is not perfect any more than is that of the courts or the president.

Still, Fisher may finally succeed in persuading the nation's doubters that the Founders got it right when they made Congress the first branch of our American government. Once more, Fisher illuminates formerly unseen corners of the constitutional system."-- Robert J. Spitzer , Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at SUNY Cortland, and author of Saving the Constitution from Lawyers "Who guards individual rights in the American political system? Most Americans would point to the Supreme Court. Louis Fisher, one of the nation's premier scholars of the separation of powers, makes a spirited argument in favor of Congress, the first branch of government. This lively and provocative book examines the role of the three branches across history and over the many types of rights that matter to Americans of all stripes. It makes a strong case for Congress--along with a plea to ameliorate its current dysfunction."-- Norman Ornstein , American Enterprise Institute Scholar and author of The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track "Louis Fisher's work is always timely and significant.

In this book, he punctures Supreme Court myths by demonstrating how it long blocked the development of key constitutional rights. This book is a must for understanding Congress's early struggles to gain protections for African Americans, women, children, religious liberty, and American Indians. Fisher also offers a fresh examination of why Congress has lost much of its institutional capacity to forge public policy on these and other fronts."-- Jasmine Farrier , author of Congressional Ambivalence: The Political Burdens of Constitutional Authority.