An authoritative survey of the Taft Court, which served from 1921 to 1929, and the impact it had on the American legal system, social order, economics, and politics. William Howard Taft's experience in the executive branch gave him a unique perspective on the Court's work. He initiated judicial reform and was the prime mover behind the Judiciary Act of 1925, which gave the Court wide latitude to accept cases based on their importance to the nation. The Taft Court decided about 1,600 cases across its nine terms. This book establishes the "aggregate" personality of the Court through discussions of individual voting characteristics, bloc alignments, and other patterned behavior. It also charts the strengths and weaknesses of the rulings and demonstrates Taft's penchant for heightening the impact of decisions by pursuing consensus among the justices, two of whom were his own appointees when he served as president.

Marbury v. Madison. Brown v. Board of Education. Roe v. Wade. Gore v. Bush. Great-and controversial-Supreme Court decisions. What gave rise to them? How were they decided? How lasting is their impact? ABC-CLIO's Supreme Court Handbooks exhaustively chronicles the history of our nation's highest court and its role in American society. Titles in the Supreme Court Handbooks series examine the lives and thinking of every justice who has sat on the nation's highest bench and every significant decision they've reached. More than just a history of the Court itself, the series examines the historical context in which it has operated. Volume by volume, the Supreme Court Handbooks series offers the most comprehensive history available of all the Chief Justices' courts, from John Jay's to William Rehnquist's.