Recent changes in the Supreme Court have placed the venerable institution at the forefront of current affairs, making this comprehensive and engaging work as timely as ever. In the tradition of Howard Zinns classic A Peoples History of the United States, Peter Irons chronicles the decisions that have influenced virtually every aspect of our society, from the debates over judicial power to controversial rulings in the past regarding slavery, racial segregation, and abortion, as well as more current cases about school prayer, the Bush/Gore election results, and enemy combatants. A comprehensive history of the people and cases that have changed history, this is the definitive account of the nations highest court. BACKCOVER: It is such good reading that we allow the author to lead us places in history that we might not have expected to travel. (The Boston Globe)

FOREWORD BY HOWARD ZINN v
INTRODUCTION: "The Genius of the Constitution" xv
SECTION I: "To Establish a More Perfect Union" 1(82)
CHAPTER 1 "Morally Sinful by the Word of God" 3(14)
The law of the colonial era and its treatment of religious dissenters, women, blacks, and Indians
CHAPTER 2 "The Exigencies of the Union" 17(10)
The Constitutional Convention meets in 1787; James Madison and the Virginia Plan
CHAPTER 3 "Dishonorable to the National Character" 27(9)
The Framers debate the powers of Congress; the Great Compromise over slavery
CHAPTER 4 "The Supreme Law of the Land" 36(12)
The Framers debate executive power and establish the Supreme Court
CHAPTER 5 "The Country Must Finally Decide" 48(11)
The Framers debate a bill of rights; the final drafting and signing of the Constitution
CHAPTER 6 "The Plot Thickens Fast" 59(10)
The states debate and ratify the Constitution
CHAPTER 7 "The Nauseous Project of Amendments" 69(14)
The First Congress debates a bill of rights; the states ratify the first ten amendments
SECTION II: "It Is a Constitution We Are Expounding" 83(72)
CHAPTER 8 "The Court Is Now Sitting" 85(11)
Establishing the Supreme Court; its first sessions and members
Hayburn's Case (1792)
Chisholm v. Georgia (1793)
CHAPTER 9 "To Say What the Law Is" 96(12)
Congress passes the Sedition Act; Chief Justice John Marshall and judicial power
Marburg v. Madison (1803)
CHAPTER 10 "These Jarring and Discordant Judgments" 108(13)
The impeachment of Justice Samuel Chase; conflicts between federal and state powers
Fletcher v. Peck (1810)
Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816)
Cohens v. Virginia (1821)
CHAPTER 11 "The Good and the Wise" 121(16)
Federal power over the states; the Court construes the Contract Clause
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)
Sturges v. Crowninshield (1819)
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
Ogden v. Saunders (1827)
Barron v. Baltimore (1833)
CHAPTER 12 "Great, Good, and Excellent Man!" 137(18)
The Court first confronts slavery; Chief Justice Marshall dies and Roger Taney takes over
The Antelope (1825)
Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837)
The Amistad (1841)
Prime v. Pennsylvania (1842)
SECTION III: "Justly and Lawfully Be Reduced to Slavery" 155(78)
CHAPTER 13 "A Small, Pleasant-Looking Negro" 157(11)
The background of the Dred Scott case and the legal rights of blacks
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
CHAPTER 14 "Beings of an Inferior Order" 168(11)
The Court decides that blacks are not citizens and have no legal rights
Dred Scott v. Sandford, cont. (1857)
CHAPTER 15 'Another Explosion Will Soon Come" 179(11)
Reaction to the Dred Scott decision; the Lincoln?ouglas debates and the Civil War
Ex Parte Milligan (1866)
CHAPTER 16 "A Higher Law Than the Constitution" 190(16)
Congress adopts and the states ratify the Civil War amendments
Slaughterhouse Cases (1873)
United States v. Cruickshank (1876)
CHAPTER 17 "An Evil Eye and an Unequal Hand" 206(15)
The Civil Rights Act of 1875; the disputed presidential election of 1876
Civil Rights Cases (1883)
Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886)
CHAPTER 18 "Our Constitution Is Color-Blind" 221(12)
The Court confronts the Jim Crow system of racial segregation
Plessy v. Ferguson (1895)
SECTION IV: "Liberty in a Social Organization" 233(98)
CHAPTER 19 "The Spectre of Socialism" 235(13)
The laissez-faire Constitution and the challenge of socialism and populism
Munn v. Illinois (1877)
Mugler v. Kansas (1877)
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway v. Minnesota (1890)
United States v. E.C. Knight Co. (1895)
Pollock v. Farmers' Loan Co. (1895)
In re Debs (1895)
CHAPTER 20 "The Work Was Light and Healthful" 248(17)
The rights of workers and regulation of the workplace
Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897)
Holden v. Hardy (1898)
Lochner v. New York (1905)
Muller v. Oregon (1908)
Adkins v. Childrens Hospital (1923)
CHAPTER 21 "Falsely Shouting Fire in a Theatre" 265(17)
World War I, the Sedition Act, and free speech rights
Schenck v. United States (1919)
Debs v. United States (1919)
Abrams v. United States (1919)
CHAPTER 22 "Every Idea Is an Incitement" 282(12)
The Court reacts to the Red Scare that followed the war
Gitlow v. New York (1925)
Whitney v. California (1927)
De Jonge v. Oregon (1937)
Herndon v. Lowry (1937)
CHAPTER 23 "The General Welfare of the United States" 294(13)
The Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt, and the New Deal in court
Home Building & Loan Assn. v. Blaisdell (1934)
Nebbia v. New York (1934)
Schechter Poultg Corp. v. United States (1935)
United States v. Butler (1936)
CHAPTER 24 "To Save the Constitution from the Court" 307(11)
Roosevelt's court-packing plan and the Constitutional Revolution of 1937
Carter v. Carter Coal Co. (1936)
Morehead v. Tipaldo (1936)
West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937)
CHAPTER 25 "Hughes Thundered Out the Decision" 318(13)
The demise of the laissez-faire Constitution; Roosevelt packs the Court with New Dealers
NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Co. (1937)
SECTION V: "Beyond the Reach of Majorities" 331(90)
CHAPTER 26 "We Live by Symbols" 333(15)
Footnote Four and the Jehovah's Witnesses cases
United States v. Carolene Products Co. (1938)
Minersville School Board v. Gobitis (1940)
West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)
CHAPTER 27 "A Jap's a Jap" 348(17)
The wartime internment of Japanese Americans and the redress movement
Hirabayashi v. United States (1943)
Korematsu v. United States (1944)
Ex parte Endo (1944)
CHAPTER 28 "My Little Soul Is Overjoyed" 365(18)
The NAACP campaign against segregation; the Communist Party in the courts
Gaines v. Canada (1938)
Sipuel v. Oklahoma Board of Regents (1948)
Shelley v. Kraemer (1948)
Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
McLaurin v. Oklahoma (1950)
Dennis v. United States (1951)
CHAPTER 29 "Give Me the Colored Doll" 383(12)
The school segregation cases
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
CHAPTER 30 "War on the Constitution" 395(14)
The Brown decisions and the Little Rock insurrection against judicial authority
Brown v. Board of Education, cont. (1954)
Cooper v. Aaron (1958)
CHAPTER 31 "A Better Place Because He Lived" 409(12)
The Warren Court and the Bill of Rights
Everson v. Board of Education (1947)
McCollum v. Illinois (1948)
Engel v. Vitale (1962)
Abington Township v. Schempp (1963)
Lee v. Weisman (1992)
Reynolds v. Sims (1964)
Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (1964)
Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
United States v. O'Brien (1968)
Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)
New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)
SECTION VI: "A Right of Personal Privacy" 421(60)
CHAPTER 32 "You've Been Taking Pure Thalidomide" 423(13)
The Court deals with procreation
Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942)
Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)
CHAPTER 33 "The Raw Edges of Human Existence" 436(14)
The issue of abortion
Roe v. Wade (1973)
CHAPTER 34 "Truly a Pandora's Box" 450(14)
Affirmative action and gay rights
Regents v. Bakke (1978)
Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)
CHAPTER 35 "I Fear for the Future" 464(17)
The Court divides over abortion, flag burning, and affirmative action
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989)
Texas V. Johnson (1989)
Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. (1989)
Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)
SECTION VII: "It Is a Cultural War" 481(46)
CHAPTER 36 "One Nation Under God" 483(14)
Religion returns to the Court
Board of Airport Commissioners v. Jews for Jesus (1987)
Westside School District v. Mergens (1990)
Center Moriches School District v. Lamb's Chapel (1993)
Rosenberger v. University of Virginia (1995)
Santa Fe School District v. Doe (2000)
Elk Grove School District v. Newdow (2004)
McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky (2005)
CHAPTER 37 "The Values We Share with a Wider Civilization" 497(15)
Gay Rights, assisted suicide, and abortion
Romer v. Evans (1996)
Lawrence v. Texas (2003)
Cruzan v. Missouri (1990)
Washington v. Glucksberg (1997)
Vacco v. Quill (1997)
Senberg v. Carhart (2000)
CHAPTER 38 "A Blank Check for the President" 512(15)
Presidential elections, affirmative action, and the war on terror
Bush v. Gore (2000)
Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)
Gratz v. Bollinger (2003)
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2005)
Padilla v. Rumsfeld (2005)
Rasul v. Bush (2005)
EPILOGUE: "One of Us Will Have a Pick" 527(5)
UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION 532(17)
THE JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT 549(5)
NOTES 554(19)
SOURCES FOR FURTHER READING 573(5)
INDEX 578