The Nine Have Spoken

This incisive new book from The Nation contributors argues that our current right-wing Supreme Court is no aberration, but rather part of a long history where demands for a more democratic, accountable federal judiciary have been constant--and unheeded--for more than 150 years. If the right-wing Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett holds onto her seat as long as her predecessor, the late liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she will still be hearing cases in 2059. That's nearly four decades of consequential decision-making, the opportunity for the Court's conservative supermajority to reshape nearly all American institutions for generations to come. If this seems a daunting prospect on its own, these cutting dispatches from The Nation look back at more than 150 years of the Court's near-constant tipping of the scales, from the recent repeal of Roe v. Wade to the hollowing out of labor unions, voter protections, campaign-finance regulations, and beyond. Indeed, if there's one institution we might blame for all the staggering crises the country faces today, it's the Supreme Court. As the leading progressive magazine in the country, The Nation has reported on and debated the Court's repeated transgressions on public life. This book offers indispensable perspective on how we reached our current moment and what it might take to see our way out.