The Supreme Court

Abstract

As always when a new administration settles in, there is speculation in Washington over the Supreme Court-its future direction, possible vacancies, presidential appointees. The nine Justices often surprise Presidents. As the makeup and outlook of the Court change, the Justices do not always decide constitutional cases along predictable ideological lines. The Court's decisions have shaped America's history; in no other nation is the highest court so powerful. Here, political scientist Alpheus T. Mason reviews the Court's evolution from its origins through the mid-1950s. Law professor A. E. Dick Howard examines the changing Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren and under the present Chief Justice, Warren Burger.