Each of the cases selected for review is preceded by a treatment of the historical, political and economic context during which the case is decided. The shaping elements of each decision is discussed in situ with its time and place. The author has drawn on his own research as well as that of many scholars for the purpose of contextual settings. An edited version of the Supreme Court majority opinion is presented in each section. In a number of sections edited versions of dissenting and concurring opinions are also presented and often these dissenting opinions prove to be the underpinnings for future reconsiderations of the issues at hand.

Table of Contents: Marbury v. Madison (1803) -- Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819) -- McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) -- Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) -- Barron v. Baltimore (1833) -- Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) -- Ex parte Milligan (1866) -- United States v. E.C. Knight Co. (1895) -- Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)-- Lochner v. New York (1905) -- Schenck v. United States (1919) -- Near v. Minnesota (1931) -- United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936) -- National Labor Relations Board v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp. (1937) -- Korematsu v. United States (1944) -- Everson v. Board of Ed. of Ewing (1947) -- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas (1954) -- Mapp v. Ohio (1961) -- Baker v. Carr (1962) -- Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) -- Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (1964) -- Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) -- Miranda v. Arizona (1966) -- United States v. Nixon (1974) -- Bush v. Gore (2000).