{"product_id":"fighting-foreclosure-john-a-fliter-9780700618729","title":"Fighting Foreclosure: The Blaisdell Case, the Contract Clause, and the Great Depression","description":"In the depths of the Great Depression, when foreclosure rates skyrocketed across the United States, more than two dozen states passed mortgage-extension or -adjustment laws to help farmers and homeowners keep their properties. One such statute in Minnesota led to the most important property law case of its time and still casts a long shadow upon constitutional debates and our own era's severe economic downturn. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eFighting Foreclosure\u003c\/i\u003e marks the first book-length study of the landmark 1934 Supreme Court decision in Home Building and Loan Association v. Blaisdell, which, by a 5-4 vote, upheld the Minnesota Mortgage Moratorium Act. On the one hand, Blaisdell validated efforts by states to offer legislative relief to citizens struggling to keep their farms and homes. On the other, it caused an outcry among banking interests and conservative legal theorists, who argued that these laws violated the Contract Clause of the Constitution and interfered with our free market system. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn his majority opinion, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes argued that the reasonable and limited nature of the law and the unusual severity of the emergency it addressed placed it firmly within the \"police powers\" of the states to protect the health and safety of the people. In a strongly worded dissent, Justice George Sutherland argued for a consistent and strict interpretation of the Contract Clause regardless of economic exigency. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJohn Fliter and Derek Hoff provide a concise history and analysis of not only this landmark case and the reasoning behind its sharply divided decision but also of the entire history of the Contract Clause. They trace closely the agricultural crisis, political pressures, and farmer-protest movement that produced the Minnesota law. And their study contributes to scholarly debate about the origins of the Constitutional Revolution of 1937, by which the Supreme Court accepted the New Deal, as well as to public debates about constitutional interpretation and the role that government should play in providing relief to distressed citizens. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the midst of our nation's ongoing suffering from massive foreclosures and bankruptcies, \u003ci\u003eFighting Foreclosure\u003c\/i\u003e also offers a potent reminder that the High Court's decisions often revolve around lives at risk as much as abstract legal debates.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e John A. Fliter, Derek S. Hoff\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0700618724\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780700618729\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University Press of Kansas\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/05\/2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 232\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.65lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.70d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2013","brand":"John A. Fliter","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44365016531199,"sku":"9780700618729","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_e0cee764-035b-40f3-8a2a-f535e5148c98.jpg?v=1697056148","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/fighting-foreclosure-john-a-fliter-9780700618729","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}