Last Branch Standing

A myth-busting glimpse into the inner workings of the Supreme Court, revealing what we get wrong about the “Roberts era,” what the justices' clerks gossip about, and how to fix a court in crisis—from the popular ABC news pundit and top legal podcaster

Most people get the Supreme Court all wrong. That includes Washington “insiders.” A smattering of high-profile decisions have popularized a simplistic idea of the Court and its nine justices. Yes, six of them were appointed by Republicans, and only three were appointed by a Democratic president. So, how does that 6-3 conservative majority explain why liberal Elena Kagan and conservative Brett Kavanaugh agreed with each other over 75 percent of the time in a recent term? Or why the court threw shade at Florida’s attempt to ban drag shows?

To truly appreciate the nine justices of the Supreme Court, argues Sarah Isgur, you have to look beyond political affiliation. That’s only part of the story—the “X-Axis.” The wisest court watchers know that they there is a whole other measuring stick—the “Y-Axis.” On this spectrum, the justices span from order-loving institutionalists to true chaos agents. The Y-Axis affects which cases the court takes, when they take them, how they get decided. And, when you appreciate its nuances, you’ll see the court looks a lot more like 3-3-3 than 6-3.

The ultimate insider, Isgur takes readers on a deep dive inside the Supreme Court: how cases land at the court’s doorstep, which justices attend clerk happy hours (and which ones even bother showing up to the office), why conservatives already have buyer’s remorse about Amy Coney Barrett, and how the whole judiciary system is kind of a constitutional anomaly. She’ll even help you decide whether you should throw your hat in the ring and go to law school! Blending irreverent humor and incisive commentary, Isgur goes behind the cloaks and robes—and shows us what we need to do to preserve the rule of law amid dicey times in this little self-governing experiment we’ve been running for the last 250 years.