The Nine Have Spoken: The Nation vs. the Supreme Court, 1870 to Today

This first book in the Nation/OR Books co-publishing project argues our reactionary Supreme Court is no aberration, but the endpoint of a long history of demands for a democratic, accountable judiciary that have gone unheeded.

If the right-wing Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett holds onto her seat as long as her late predecessor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she will still be hearing cases in 2059. That’s nearly four decades of consequential decision-making, giving the Court’s conservative supermajority the opportunity to reshape nearly all American institutions for generations to come.

As the leading progressive magazine in the country, The Nation has reported on and debated the Court’s repeated transgressions on public life for more than 150 years. This collection of cutting dispatches presents indispensable perspectives on how we reached our current moment-from the repeal of Roe v. Wade to the hollowing out of labor unions, voter protections, campaign-finance regulations, and beyond--and what it will take to find our way out.

Featuring contributions by Elie Mystal, I. F. Stone, Jamie Raskin, Katha Pollitt, Jedediah Britton-Purdy, Patricia J. Williams, and Charles Warren.

Richard Kreitner is a contributing writer to The Nation and the author of Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union (2020) and Fear No Pharaoh: American Jews, the Civil War, and the Fight to End Slavery (2025).