Defending Congress and the Constitution

The author himself provides an apt description of this book when he refers in its final pages to his "battering ram" argument that Congress shares the duty of constitutional interpretation with the Supreme Court. That term might also be applied to Fisher's 40-year career as a scholar and congressional staff member, when he wrote some 20 books in consistent defense of the prerogatives of Congress against those of the President and the Court. Here again he takes up this argument, that Congress should neither "genuflect" nor engage in "idolatry" toward the other branches, closely analyzing areas such as judicial review, federalism, religious freedom, individual rights, war powers, and, where he provides an especially good critique, the federal budgeting process. Fisher covers less studied topics as well, notably the role of expert congressional staff, an area he knows firsthand.