Marcia Coyle

The Roberts Court: the Struggle for the Constitution Marcia Coyle Unabridged Mp3cd edition

[MP3-CD audiobook format in Vinyl case.]

The Roberts court - seven years old, with a predominantly 5-4 conservative-liberal split - sits at the center of a constitutional maelstrom. Marcia Coyle, one of the most prestigious experts on the Supreme Court, reports on its direction under Chief Justice Roberts as she traces the paths and resolutions of five landmark decisions on race, guns, immigration, campaign finance, and health care.

Coyle recounts how a smart group of conservative lawyers has crafted cases with an eye toward an increasingly receptive conservative majority. She describes the long paths these cases take to reach the court and how their resolutions expose the political divisions among the justices: originalists versus pragmatists on guns and the Second Amendment; ''Corporate money is speech'' versus ''Corporate money is not speech''; and state versus federal powers in the cases of immigration and health care.

As Bob Woodward laid bare the inner workings of the Supreme Court in The Brethren, Coyle demonstrates how the direction of the Roberts court is powerfully affecting the nation's political argument and its future.