Boudin, Louis B. (1874–1952)
BOUDIN, LOUIS B. (1874–1952)
Louis Boudianoff Boudin was a prominent New York attorney and the author of books and articles on constitutional law, jurisprudence, and government regulation of the economy. His most significant work was Government by Judiciary (2 vols., 1932), a massive, iconoclastic history of the doctrine of judicial review. Boudin argued that, beginning in 1803 with john marshall's opinion in marbury v. madison, the federal judiciary had gradually expanded its powers and authority at the expense of the legislative and executive branches, culminating in a "government by judiciary" hostile to the basic principles of the Constitution established by its Framers and to the tenets of democratic government. While Boudin's admirers praised his erudition and accepted his exposure of the weaknesses of the historical case for judicial review, his critics questioned his tendency to write as an advocate rather than as a historian and charged that his conclusions were not supported by an impartial examination of the historical evidence.
Richard B. Bernstein
(1986)