Alexander Mordecai Bickel (December 17, 1924 – November 8, 1974) was a law professor and expert on the United States Constitution. One of the most influential constitutional commentators of the twentieth century, his writings emphasize judicial restraint. December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... November 8 is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 53 days remaining. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1974 calendar). ... The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ...

Born in Romania, Bickel graduated Harvard Law School cum laude. He served as a law clerk to Justice Felix Frankfurter of the Supreme Court of the United States in the 1952 term, preparing an historical memorandum urging that Brown v. Board of Education be reargued. Starting in 1956, he taught at Yale Law School until his death. Harvard Law School (HLS) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. ... Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. ... In the United States, a law clerk is a person who assists a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. ... Justice Frankfurter Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. ... The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the U.S. and leads the judicial branch of the U.S. federal government. ... Holding Racial segregation of students in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because separate facilities are inherently unequal. ... Yale Law School, established in 1843 in New Haven, Connecticut, is a division of Yale University. ...

A frequent contributor to the Commentary, New Republic and the New York Times, Bickel represented the latter in the Pentagon Papers Case (1971). He also defended President Richard Nixon’s order to dismiss special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox. Commentary Magazine is a journal published by the American Jewish Committee, since 1945. ... For other uses, see the disambiguation section. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... The Pentagon Papers is the colloquial term for United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, a 47 volume, 7,000-page, top-secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States political and military involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... The Watergate Complex (now the Watergate Hotel) as depicted in Government Exhibit 1. ... Archibald Cox, Jr. ...

Bickel's most distinctive contribution to constitutional law was to stress what he called "the passive virtues" of judicial decision-making-- the refusal to decide cases on substantive grounds if narrower grounds exist to decide the case. Bickel viewed "private ordering" and the voluntary working-out of problems as generally preferable to legalistic solutions.

In his books The Supreme Court and the Idea of Progress and The Morality of Consent, Bickel attacked the Warren Court for what he saw as its misuse of history, shoddy reasoning, and sometimes arbitrary results. Bickel thought that the Warren Court's two most important lines of decision, Brown v. Board of Education and Baker v. Carr, did not produce the results the court had intended. Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was a California district attorney of Alameda County, the 30th Governor of California, and the 14th Chief Justice of the United States (from 1953 to 1969). ...

Bickel envisioned the Supreme Court as playing a statesman-like role in national controversies, engaging in dialogue with the other branches of government. Thus he did not see the Court as a purely passive body, but as one which should lead public opinion, albeit carefully.

Bickel's writings addressed such varied topics as constitutionalism and Burkean thought, citizenship, civil disobedience, freedom of speech, moral authority and intellectual thought. Bickel has been cited by Samuel Alito as a major influence and is widely considered one of the most influential constitutional conservatives of the 20th century. Constitutionalism is the limitation of government by law. ... Edmund Burke The Right Honourable Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729 – July 9, 1797) was an Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator and political philosopher, who served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig party. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... It has been suggested that Civil and social disobedience be merged into this article or section. ... A public demonstration Freedom of speech is often regarded as an integral concept in modern liberal democracies, where it is understood to outlaw censorship. ... Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. ... Conservatism or political conservatism is any of several historically related political philosophies or political ideologies. ...

Selected bibliography

• The Least Dangerous Branch (Bobbs-Merrill, 1962)
• Politics and the Warren Court (Harper & Row, 1965)
• The Supreme Court and the Idea of Progress (Harper & Row, 1970)
• The Morality of Consent (Yale University Press, 1975)
• History of the Supreme Court of the United States: The Judiciary and Responsible Government: 1910-1921 (vol. IX, Macmillan, 1984).