Supreme Control
The Long War for the Supreme Court-and Why Republicans Are Currently Winning
Will be published approx. on 17. November 2026
Book
Hardback
328 pages
978-0-7006-4328-8 (ISBN)
Description
An essential history of how both parties fought for control of the Supreme Court-and how Republicans have seized the advantage.
In Supreme Control, leading Supreme Court scholar Lucas A. Powe, Jr. explains how the United States arrived at the Republican-dominated Roberts Court that is transforming constitutional law and reshaping everyday American life. What once seemed unthinkable, a Court willing to overturn long-settled precedent to advance a single political vision, has become reality.
Powe argues that today's Court fulfills a decades-long Republican project: the creation of a reliably conservative Supreme Court. Built through a carefully orchestrated strategy culminating in the judicial appointments made during Donald Trump's presidency, the Roberts Court represents an unprecedented concentration of power within one political coalition. Placing these developments in historical context, Powe shows how the current Court is only the latest in a long battle for partisan dominance of American law.
The struggle to control the Supreme Court, Powe demonstrates, is as old as the republic itself. From Washington, Adams, and Jefferson to Lincoln, Grant, and FDR, presidents have sought a Court that would secure their constitutional priorities. After a string of controversial liberal rulings in the 1960s and 1970s by the Warren Court, conservatives launched a sustained, long-term effort to reverse that legacy. That campaign advanced unevenly for decades until it finally succeeded in the twenty-first century with Donald Trump's first term.
Today, the consequences are unmistakable. The Court's recent decisions on abortion, gun rights, religion, affirmative action, and executive power have thrust it into the center of American political life, with sweeping implications for democracy, governance, and individual rights.
As Americans continue to grapple with the Court's immense authority, Supreme Control provides the clearest explanation yet of how we reached this critical moment in history and what it means for the nation's future.
In Supreme Control, leading Supreme Court scholar Lucas A. Powe, Jr. explains how the United States arrived at the Republican-dominated Roberts Court that is transforming constitutional law and reshaping everyday American life. What once seemed unthinkable, a Court willing to overturn long-settled precedent to advance a single political vision, has become reality.
Powe argues that today's Court fulfills a decades-long Republican project: the creation of a reliably conservative Supreme Court. Built through a carefully orchestrated strategy culminating in the judicial appointments made during Donald Trump's presidency, the Roberts Court represents an unprecedented concentration of power within one political coalition. Placing these developments in historical context, Powe shows how the current Court is only the latest in a long battle for partisan dominance of American law.
The struggle to control the Supreme Court, Powe demonstrates, is as old as the republic itself. From Washington, Adams, and Jefferson to Lincoln, Grant, and FDR, presidents have sought a Court that would secure their constitutional priorities. After a string of controversial liberal rulings in the 1960s and 1970s by the Warren Court, conservatives launched a sustained, long-term effort to reverse that legacy. That campaign advanced unevenly for decades until it finally succeeded in the twenty-first century with Donald Trump's first term.
Today, the consequences are unmistakable. The Court's recent decisions on abortion, gun rights, religion, affirmative action, and executive power have thrust it into the center of American political life, with sweeping implications for democracy, governance, and individual rights.
As Americans continue to grapple with the Court's immense authority, Supreme Control provides the clearest explanation yet of how we reached this critical moment in history and what it means for the nation's future.
Reviews / Votes
"Lucas A. Powe, Jr. is one of our nation's most distinguished legal historians, as his writing has indelibly shaped broad swaths of the American constitutional landscape. In Supreme Control, Powe brilliantly excavates and illuminates one of the most important-and yet one of the most underexplored-topics in our constitutional order. This book briskly tells a fresh, arresting story in dazzling prose that are nothing less than a joy to read. All Americans interested in the modern Supreme Court-and how we arrived at this improbable moment-will need to reckon with Powe's engaging, provocative, and persuasive account."-Justin Driver, author of Washington Post Notable Book of the Year and Editors' Choice of The New York Times Book Review The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind"Supreme Control lucidly explains how the Supreme Court became so conservative, and better yet, it traces the long history of presidents' efforts, some more successful than others, to pack the Court with likeminded justices. This is an engaging and informative book by one of our leading historians of the Supreme Court."-Stuart Banner, Norman Abrams Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA, and the author of The Most Powerful Court in the World: A History of the Supreme Court of the United States
"This is a magnificent, sweeping history of the Supreme Court and constitutional law from its earliest moments through today. In a very clear and accessible way, Professor Powe has written a book that will inform and entertain both experts and those with little background in constitutional law."-Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Kansas
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-7006-4328-8 (9780700643288)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Lucas A. Powe, Jr. is the Anne Green Regents Chair in Law and professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. He is the author of numerous books, including The Supreme Court and the American Elite, 1789-2020 (Kansas, 2022).