THURGOOD MARSHALL THUNDERED at me from the bench．In Justice Marshall's waning years on the Court，he spoke up only rarely in oral argument．But he was always focused．The eye contact was the dead giveaway．The great civil rights lawyer who led the legal fight against Jim Crow in Brown v. Board of Education was in the sunset of his career, but he was still sharp．The advocate could not escape his glare．He watched you，closely．

Today's United States Supreme Court consists of nine intriguingly varied justices and one overwhelming contradiction：Compared toits revolutionary predecessor，the RehnquistCourt appears deceptively passive，yet it standsas dramatically ready to defy convention as the Warren Court of the 1950s and 60s．NowKennethw Starr—who served as clerk for onechiefjustice，argued twenty-five cases as solicitor general before the Supreme Court，and iswidely regarded as one of the nation's most distinguished practitioners of constitutionallaw——offers us an incisive and unprecedented look at the paradoxes，the power，and thepeople of the highest court in the land．

Preface 

Introduction

Part One The Supreme Court Then and Now

Chapter One Origins

Chapter Two The Justices

Part Two The Rights of "We the People" 

Chapter Three Shouting Fire in Crowded Theaters： The Freedom of Speech

Chapter Four Hard Money and Soft：The First Amendment and Politics

Chapter Five Religion in the Public Square 

Chapter Six  Parochial Schools and Public Money：The Neutrality Principle 

Chapter Seven The Constitutional“Right”of Privacy：Abortion and Beyond 

Chapter Eight Counting by Race I：The Affirmative Action Controversy

Chapter Nine Counting by Race II：Gerrymandering and Voting

Chapter Ten  The Criminal Iustice Revolution： Excluding Evidence

     from Criminal Trials 

Chapter Eleven "You Have the Right to．．．"： Miranda and the Fifth Amendment

Part Three  The Powers and Structure of American Government 

Chapter Twelve  The Power to Make Law：The Statutory Conversation

       between Court and Congress 

Chapter Thirteen The Rehnquist Court and the Federal Republic

Chapter Fourteen Presidents：The Court and the Executive Branch

Chapter Fifteen Bush v. Gore

Acknowleagments 

The Constitution of the United States

Index