An authoritative, even-handed, and accessible history of the Supreme Court of the United States, the most
powerful court in the world and the final arbiter of the world's oldest constitution.
Will abortion be legal? Should people of the same sex be allowed to marry? May colleges prefer black applicants
over white ones? These are among the most bitterly contested issues in the United States today. We answer
these questions, and many more, by presenting them to nine lawyers--the justices of the Supreme Court of the
United States. No other nation commits so many important questions to its highest court.
Stuart Banner's The Most Powerful Court in the World is an authoritative history of the United States Supreme
Court from the Founding era to the present. Not merely a history of the Court's opinions and jurisprudence, it
is also a rich account of the Court in the broadest sense--of the sorts of people who become justices and the
methods by which they are chosen, of how the Court does its work, and of its relationship with other branches
of government. It is about how the Court acquired so much power, how it has retained its power in the face of
repeated challenges and criticisms, and what it has done with its power over the years. Rather than praising or
criticizing the Court's decisions, Banner makes the case that one cannot fully understand the decisions without
knowing about the institution that produced them.
Offering a fresh analytical window into today's contentious debates about the Court--debates that often rest
on dubious ideas about the Court's history--The Most Powerful Court in the World helps readers see cases
through the justices' eyes.