Without Precedent - by Lisa Graves (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A provocative firsthand account of how Chief Justice John Roberts posed as a fair-minded jurist in order to impose the reactionary agenda of billionaire elites committed to reversing Americans' freedoms In the last twenty years the US Supreme Court has radically curtailed voting rights, undermined anti-corruption measures, encouraged extreme political gerrymandering, restricted the regulation of guns, and obliterated the constitutional right to control one's reproductive choices. This transformation was orchestrated by a billionaire-backed reactionary political movement, whose interests Chief Justice John Roberts has been all too willing to serve. Without Precedent explodes the falsehood that Roberts is a fair-minded institutionalist who works to blunt the worst impulses of other Republican appointees to the court when, in fact, he has led the rightward transformation of the court's jurisprudence while presiding over the most corrupt and corrupted Supreme Court in American history. Informed by Lisa Graves's experience working on judicial issues for all three branches of the federal government, and based on years of intensive research, Without Precedent not only exposes Roberts as the reactionary politician in robes he has always been but delivers a vigorous plan of judicial reform designed to overcome the divisive, discriminatory, destructive, and anti-democratic machinations of the Roberts court"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A provocative firsthand account of how Chief Justice John Roberts posed as a fair-minded jurist in order to impose the reactionary agenda of billionaire elites.

"A devastating, passionate takedown of Chief Justice John Roberts's Supreme Court by a Washington insider." --Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money

In the last twenty years the US Supreme Court has radically curtailed voting rights, undermined anti-corruption measures, encouraged extreme political gerrymandering, restricted the regulation of guns, and obliterated the constitutional right to control one's reproductive choices. This transformation was orchestrated by a billionaire-backed reactionary political movement, whose interests Chief Justice John Roberts has been all too willing to serve.

Without Precedent explodes the falsehood that Roberts is a fair-minded institutionalist who works to blunt the worst impulses of other Republican appointees to the court when, in fact, he has led the rightward transformation of the court's jurisprudence while presiding over the most corrupt and corrupted Supreme Court in American history.

Informed by Lisa Graves's experience working on judicial issues for all three branches of the federal government, and based on years of intensive research, Without Precedent not only exposes Roberts as the reactionary politician in robes he has always been but delivers a vigorous plan of judicial reform designed to overcome the divisive, discriminatory, destructive, and anti-democratic machinations of the Roberts court.

Review Quotes

"A brilliant explanation of how conservative big money and a long-term strategy changed American politics, and a detailed account of the way political conservatives, inside and outside government, have shaped the Supreme Court and other federal courts since 1991."--Los Angeles Review of Books

"Graves writes clearly and with a clear sense of outrage at what the Supreme Court has become under Roberts's stewardship."--Times Literary Supplement

"A well-researched, cogently analyzed, and eye-opening chronicle of Roberts and his seemingly compromised Supreme Court."--Booklist (starred)

"A captivating cri de coeur from an up-close spectator to U.S. democracy's downward spiral."--Publishers Weekly (starred)

"No one combines legal expertise and peerless investigative talent like the brilliant and brave Lisa Graves, who proves beyond reasonable doubt that Justice John Roberts has acted as a political animal throughout his career. An eye-popping can't-put-it-down account, Without Precedent is a must-read for everyone who knows something has gone terribly wrong with the U.S. Supreme Court yet doesn't understand why. I had to remind myself to breathe while reading this tour de force about the near ruin of our country that Roberts and his Federalist Society supermajority have wrought."--Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains

"A devastating, passionate takedown of Chief Justice John Roberts's Supreme Court by a Washington insider, progressive activist, and eyewitness to Roberts' rise to power. As a top Democratic lawyer to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lisa Graves was 'in the room where it happened, ' for many of the most hard-fought battles over America's highest court. Now she tells the inside story. Anyone concerned about justice in America should read it."--Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money, Chief Washington Correspondent, The New Yorker Magazine

"A vigorous takedown of the chief justice of the United States."--Kirkus

"Lisa Graves is a dazzlingly brilliant sleuth of the dark-money apparatus that has corrupted the Supreme Court. Graves' Without Precedent reveals how Chief Justice Roberts and the other right-wing justices mangled the Constitution in service to a group of shadowy billionaire extremists."--Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senator, Rhode Island

About the Author

Lisa Graves is one of the nation's foremost experts on the right-wing influence on the US Supreme Court and other levers of power. She leads True North Research and co-hosts Legal AF. She has served as a senior advisor in all three branches of the federal government, including as chief counsel for nominations for the Senate Judiciary Committee for Senator Patrick Leahy. She resides in Superior, Wisconsin.