Notes

• "Fifteen years after he became the first sitting Chief Justice to write a book about the United States Supreme Court, William H. Rehnquist has added new chapters and substantially revised his classic work. The Supreme Court begins with the personal story of William Rehnquist’s introduction to the Court as a law clerk to Justice Robert Jackson in 1952. From there it describes the Court’s early evolution and function in our small, young democracy. Finally, it explains how the Court operates today." "Using biographical sketches of successive chief justices and associate justices and describing landmark cases, Rehnquist shows us how, as our country has grown and our politics have changed, the Court has moved in tandem with the executive and legislative branches to become the diverse and complex body we see in the present. The dramatic case of Marbury v. Madison, in which the Court first established its authority to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional, and the ill-starred Dred Scott decision, which held that Congress might not exclude slavery from a territory - a decision that touched a raw nerve in the national consciousness - are two of the disputes described in detail."–BOOK JACKET