As the highest court in what has become the world's most powerful nation, The Supreme Court of the United States sits at the faultline between the ideal and the real, between justice and power, between the serene majesty of The Law and the sometimes bombastic, sometimes grubby disputes that define our politics.
In the arguments before the court, principles clash with ambition and avarice, and it can be difficult to tell which is which. The decisions that the justices hand back are often wise and reasonable, but there have been moments of folly as well, and on more than one occasion it has taken decades for Americans to recognize the difference.
Learn more about the Supreme Court through this series.