Table of Contents
Preface "How Did You Get Here?" vii
Introduction "The Judicial Power of the United States": How Our Courts Were Framed and How They Function 1
Part I "No Reasonable Juror": The Death-Row Ordeal of Paul House
1 The Murder of Carolyn Muncey 27
2 The Murder Trial of Paul House 43
3 Paul House's Appeals in the Tennessee State Courts 69
4 Paul House's Federal Habeas Corpus Petition and Hearing 75
5 Paul House Seeks Relief from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals 103
6 Paul House's Appeal to the United States Supreme Court 111
7 The House Case Returns to the Federal and State Courts 127
Part II "An Establishment of Religion": The Ten Commandments and Crosses in the Courts
8 A Tale of Two Cities and Two Cases 141
9 The Hearings and the Opinions in the McCreary County and Van Orden Cases 167
10 The Supreme Court Appeals in the Ten Commandments Cases 175
11 The Impact of Justice Breyer's Concurrence on Pending Ten Commandments Cases 193
12 The Infl uence of Politics in Religion Cases: The Mt. Soledad Cross Case 213
13 Religious Politics, Judicial Snarls, and the Mojave Desert Cross Case 241
Conclusion 253
Appendix of Supreme Court Opinions 257
I. Opinions in House v. Bell 257
II. Opinions in McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky 280
III. Opinions in Van Orden v. Perry 305
Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading 325
Index 329