Supreme Court and the American Elite, 1789-2020

Lucas A. Powe, Jr, is the Anne Green Regents Chair in Law and professor of government, University of Texas at Austin School of Law. He is the author of numerous books, including The Warren Court and American Politics.

This expanded edition could not be more welcome or timely as America focuses on the relationship between politics and the US Supreme Court. Powe’s book is an essential introduction to the history of the Court and American constitutional law, and it covers a tremendous amount of ground efficiently and with lively prose. It remains the best one-volume history of the Supreme Court." - Keith E. Whittington, author of Repugnant Laws: Judicial Review of Acts of Congress from the Founding to the Present"Professor Powe extends his valuable history of the Supreme Court as a political institution to include the departures of Justices Kennedy and Scalia and the arrivals of their replacements. These developments confirm his overall theme that the Court is generally a place where partisan interests clash and are resolved pretty much along the lines that they are resolved in Congress and the presidency. Reading Powe’s work we can think about whether or how our current hyperpolarized politics will affect the Court over the next decade." - Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Emeritus, Harvard Law School"Anyone looking for a guide to the history of the Supreme Court will struggle to do better than this one. Powe pulls no punches in a work that is lively, insightful, and tremendous fun." - Mary Ziegler, Stearns Weaver Miller Professor, Florida State University College of Law, and author of Abortion and the Law in America: Roe v. Wade to the Present"The Supreme Court and the American Elite, 1789-2020 is a lively and opinionated history of the US Supreme Court as a political institution. Powe delights in puncturing the pretensions of the Court with an energetic style that is as enlightening as it is entertaining." - Jack M. Balkin, Yale Law School"The expanded second edition of The Supreme Court and the American Elite is a timely and thought-provoking contribution to legal and political science scholarship on Court decision-making, surveying the Court’s decisions up through the recent 2019–2020 term. Powe writes accessibly and incisively about the Court’s landmark decisions and their place within the wider context of American culture and political discourse. Therefore, this expanded edition will interest not just academics and avid Court-watchers but also the broader public." - Ronald Kahn, James Monroe Professor of Politics and Law Emeritus, Oberlin College