The Supreme Court: How It Was, How It is

As the Chief Justice notes, this is not a treatise on constitutional law. Rather, it is a genial, reader-friendly account of the least understood of the three branches of government. Rehnquist begins with a recollection of his service as a clerk for Justice Robert H. Jackson, follows with a succinct and highly readable history of the Court from the time of John Marshall to the mid-20th century and closes with a detailed explanation of how the present Court goes about its business. Among the cases highlighted are Marbury v. Madison, which established the authority of the federal courts to declare a law passed by Congress unconstitutional and therefore void; the pro-slavery Dred Scott decision; and the 1952 Steel Seizure case, one of the most important confrontations between the executive and judicial branches. The relationship between all three branches of government is brought into sharp focus in a section on FDR's court-packing attempt in 1937. (September 14)