'Feeley and Rubin have produced a kind of tour de force in legal theory. Besides offering a lively history of the prison reform litigation itself, they have provocative and often incisive comments on core issues of constitutional theory such as federalism, separation of powers, and the role of the federal courts.' Daniel A. Farber, Law & Social Inquiry

' … judges would do well to read a new book by scholars Malcolm Feeley and Edward Rubin, Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State: How the Courts Reformed America's Prisons. It is an eye-opening account of how federal judges have gone beyond enforcing the Constitution to impose their own policy preferences on state and local government. The authors, respected scholars who approve of judicial policy making, reveal a secret that has long been suspected: Judicial supervision of prisons cannot be squared with federalism, separation of powers or even traditional notions of the rule of law.' David Schoenbrod and Ross Sandler, The Wall Street Journal