Michael G. Trachtman - The Supremes Greatest Hits, 2nd Revised & Updated Edition

I have made some admittedly arbitrary and subjective decisionsrespecting which Supreme Court cases deserve to be included in the forty-fourcases that are featured in this book. Many cases, while of great importancewithin the context of a specific legal issue, do not have a broader societalimpact. There are cases that may seem significant now, but are likely to fadeover time. And there are cases that fall into gray areas that require difficultjudgment calls. I have done my best to apply these and a myriad of othercriteria to the task.

My decisions are, certainly, subject to what would be a healthyand (at least for me) enjoyable debate. For example, National Federation ofIndependent Businesses v. Sebelius(2012) established(in a convoluted way) the constitutionality of the core provisions of theAffordable Care ActObamacarebut beyond that, it did not secure the futureof Obamacare or establish or clarify constitutional principles that willsubstantially influence the law beyond that immediate result. Similarly, inShelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court overturned aprovision of the Voting Rights Act that had prohibited nine states with ahistory of discriminatory voting practices from changing their electionprocedures without approval by the federal governmentan important decision forvoters in those states but, most likely, not a decision that will have a majorimpact on the law outside of that context.

Once the forty-four cases were selected, I struggled toobjectively explain and analyze them, as well as the competing viewpoints theyhave engendered. I have also struggled to base my criticisms of judicialopinions and approaches on law and logic, and not on my personal viewpoints. Iwill consider those struggles to have been a success if this book equips thereader with enough information and insight to tell me how and why I failed.