The Prologue introduces the Supreme Court justices through the scene of Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s casket being brought into the Supreme Court building when he died in September 2005, to lie in the Great Hall until his funeral. The author also presents the theme for the entire book: at that moment, the composition of the Supreme Court was on the verge of changing from majority liberal to majority conservative. Toobin opens by describing the Supreme Court itself, focusing on the stairs that present a grand entrance as symbolic of the idea that the Court was above the fray of everyday politics. As Toobin writes, however: “The truth about the Court has always been more complicated” (2).

In its early years, the Supreme Court staked out its place in the government. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it had become less prominent, but had returned to active leadership in the mid-20th century under Chief Justice Earl Warren. For 30 years after that, Warren Burger and William Rehnquist had presided over an evenly divided court that was dominated by swing votes of moderate justices. Lewis Powell had played that role first, followed by Sandra Day O’Connor. Although in theory the Court was independent of everything but the law, its decisions had mirrored public opinion quite well during this time.