Highly Recommended: Alcohol consumption in the US has often led to regulation through legislative action, prompting a range of Supreme Court cases arguing the legal and moral limits of legalized drinking. Maveety (Tulane) not only discusses many of the legal decisions handed down by the high court regarding alcohol but also examines how the justices’ decisions reflected their own drinking habits. Starting with antebellum judges in the period of frontier moonshine and ending with modern justices in the era of anti–drunk driving laws, Glass and Gavel contains numerous examples of how the court defined the rights of citizens to imbibe against a background of how the justices themselves preferred their cocktails. The book embraces many historical trends in American drinking, from periods when Prohibition was the law to the modern craft-beer boom. The anecdotes about the justices’ drinking habits are illuminating and interesting, but the book's real strength is Maveety’s analysis of the various alcohol-related cases examined. Any legal history is best judged by its ability to convey complex legal theories in a clear manner, and Maveety excels in this regard.

Choice Reviews

This swift-moving, thoroughly-researched, and useful (it contains recipes!) analysis of the often-tempestuous relationship between alcohol and constitutional law is a useful addition to the canon, not only because its history is unique–to my knowledge this the first extensive history of the Supreme Court’s alcohol rulings–but its format is unique as well. By combining a summary of the Court’s rulings with insightful drinking biographies of the justices themselves, Maveety has crafted a story that shows how America’s alcohol laws have shifted over time, alongside revealing portraits of how our country’s drinking culture has evolved along with, or in spite of, the legal landscape. . . . By emphasizing a token cocktail or liquor for each era, Glass and Gavel is part history and part pairing-guide. With a well-stocked bar and an experimental spirit, you could easily have a very fun reading party.

Points: The Blog of The Alcohol & Drugs History Society

[Maveety} traces the justices' drinking habits through time and the court's voluminous alcohol-related jurisprudence in her informative and thoroughly entertaining history

Washington Independent Review of Books

Nancy Maveety has written a gem of a book that simultaneously entertains while offering fresh insights into the development of American law, culture and politics. By ingeniously combining an amusing look at the drinking habits of individual justices on the U.S. Supreme Court with a survey of the Court’s decisions on alcohol regulation, Maveety tells a fascinating story of the relationship between alcohol, law and larger social and cultural changes in American history. From the role that political saloons played in the rough-and-tumble of early American democracy, to that of speakeasies during the prohibition era, to how hipster craft bars are replacing local “dive bars” during today’s debate over urban gentrification, Maveety demonstrates the critical role of alcohol regulation and law plays in the development of American public life.

Cornell W. Clayton, Washington State University

“In Glass and Gavel, Nancy Maveety succeeds admirably in stirring rigorous historical scholarship on Supreme Court decisions regulating alcohol together with a cultural history of how Americans enjoyed imbibing liquor in different eras. The result is a refreshing cocktail that reveals how the Supreme Court’s decision-making has both shaped and been shaped by our drinking habits and social attitudes toward alcohol consumption. Entertaining anecdotes about the Justices’ liquors of choice provide a zesty twist to this enlightening book.”

Clare Cushman, Supreme Court Historical Society