Synopses & Reviews
SEVEN MINUTES AFTER
President Obama put his signature to a landmark national health care insurance program, a lawyer in the office of Florida GOP attorney general Bill McCollum hit a computer key, sparking a legal challenge to the new law that would eventually reach the nation’s highest court. Health care is only the most visible and recent front in a battle over the meaning and scope of the U.S. Constitution. The battleground is the United States Supreme Court, and one of the most skilled, insightful, and trenchant of its observers takes us close up to watch it in action.
The Roberts Court, seven years old, is at the center of a constitutional maelstrom. Four landmark decisions — concerning health care, money in elections, guns at home, and race in schools — reveal the fault lines in a conservative-dominated Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.
Marcia Coyle’s brilliant inside account of the High Court captures how those cases began — the personalities and conflicts that catapulted them onto the national scene — and how they ultimately exposed the great divides among the justices, such as the originalists versus the pragmatists on guns and the Second Amendment, and corporate speech versus human speech in the controversial Citizens United campaign case. Most dramatically, her analysis shows how dedicated conservative lawyers and groups are strategizing to find cases and crafting them to bring up the judicial road to the Supreme Court with an eye on a receptive conservative majority. The Roberts Court offers a ringside seat at the struggle to lay down the law of the land.
Review
“Marcia Coyle has written the go-to book for anyone who wants to understand the most conservative Supreme Court that most Americans alive today can remember. Her acute focus on key 5-to-4 cases not only shows us the Roberts Court in action but also explains how conservative social movements have made their voices heard at the Court on issues that matter to us all.” Linda Greenhouse, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, author of Becoming Justice Blackmun
Review
“One of the best Supreme Court books in years; a wise and deeply-reported inside look at the court, its struggles and the justices themselves.” Bob Woodward, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, author of The Brethren
Review
“In her meticulously reported, eminently readable treatment of the Roberts Court, the vastly-experienced Marcia Coyle skillfully lifts the veil of ignorance enshrouding the work of our Nation’s highest Court. This is a wonderful addition to the literature about the Court uniquely entrusted with the ultimate task of interpreting America’s Constitution.” Kenneth W. Starr, Solicitor General of the U.S. in the George H.W. Bush Administration, author of First Among Equals
Review
“In this fast-paced narrative, Marcia Coyle brings alive the four recent cases that illuminate the emerging agenda of the Roberts Court. Everyone gets a voice in Coyle's story: litigants, lawyers, clerks on the Court, even the Justices themselves. In an understated but powerful voice, she also implies that the conservative majority on the Roberts Court is pursuing an agenda as broad and active as any Court in our history. Coyle concisely captures the complexities of constitutional jurisprudence.” Jack Rakove, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Original Meanings
Review
“Richly sourced and impressively researched, Marcia Coyle's authoritatively nonpartisan account of the inner workings of the Roberts Court is a must-read for everyone who wants to understand why the Court often plays a deciding role in American lives.” David Garrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the Cross
Review
“Marcia Coyle has written a brilliant expose of how the Roberts Court has acted on healthcare, gun control, campaign finance, school racism, and more. This is jurisprudence journalism-history at its finest. And it's a joy to read. Highly recommended!” Douglas Brinkley, author of Cronkite
Synopsis
The Roberts Court, seven years old, sits at the center of a constitutional maelstrom. Through four landmark decisions, Marcia Coyle, one of the most prestigious experts on the Supreme Court, reveals the fault lines in the conservative-dominated Court led by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.
Seven minutes after President Obama put his signature to a landmark national health care insurance program, a lawyer in the office of Florida GOP attorney general Bill McCollum hit a computer key, sparking a legal challenge to the new law that would eventually reach the nation's highest court. Health care is only the most visible and recent front in a battle over the meaning and scope of the U.S. Constitution. The battleground is the United States Supreme Court, and one of the most skilled, insightful, and trenchant of its observers takes us close up to watch it in action.
Marcia Coyle's brilliant inside account of the High Court captures four landmark decisions--concerning health care, money in elections, guns at home, and race in schools. Coyle examines how those cases began--the personalities and conflicts that catapulted them onto the national scene--and how they ultimately exposed the great divides among the justices, such as the originalists versus the pragmatists on guns and the Second Amendment, and corporate speech versus human speech in the controversial Citizens United campaign case. Most dramatically, her analysis shows how dedicated conservative lawyers and groups are strategizing to find cases and crafting them to bring up the judicial road to the Supreme Court with an eye on a receptive conservative majority.
The Roberts Court offers a ringside seat at the struggle to lay down the law of the land.
Synopsis
The Roberts Court — seven years old, with a predominantly 5-4 conservative/liberal split — sits at the center of a constitutional maelstrom. Marcia Coyle, one of the most prestigious experts on the Supreme Court, reports on its direction under Chief Justice Roberts, as she traces the paths and resolutions of five landmark decisions on race, guns, immigration, campaign finance, and health care.
Coyle recounts how a smart group of conservative lawyers has crafted cases with an eye towards an increasingly receptive conservative majority. She describes the long paths these cases take to reach the Court, and how their resolutions expose the political divisions among the justices: originalists v. pragmatists on guns and the Second Amendment; “corporate money is speech” v. “corporate money is not speech”; and state vs. federal powers in the cases of immigration and health care.
As Bob Woodward laid bare the inner workings of the Supreme Court in The Brethren (in the transition from Warren to Burger), Coyle demonstrates how the direction of the Roberts Court is powerfully affecting the nation’s political argument and its future.
About the Author
Marcia Coyle is the Chief Washington Correspondent for The National Law Journal. A lawyer and journalist, Coyle has covered the Supreme Court for nineteen years. She regularly appears on PBS’s NewsHour. Her work has earned numerous national journalism awards, including the George Polk Award for legal reporting, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for outstanding investigative reporting, the Scripps Howard Foundation Award for environmental reporting, and the American Judicature Society’s Toni House Journalism Award.