Author Susan Shelley shines a light on the inside game that has allowed the U.S. Supreme Court to seize control of state and local laws on issues from topless dancing to panhandling, from drug searches to abortion, from prison management to the death penalty. Read the true story of how the Supreme Court interpreted away the powers reserved to the states and replaced them with what Texas Congressman Ron Paul called "the phony incorporation doctrine" and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia called "the biggest stretch that the Court has made."

This new eBook edition contains updates on the Supreme Court's recent decisions regarding the Second Amendment right to own a gun, the First Amendment right to protest at military funerals, the Fourth Amendment defense against strip-searches in schools, and the federal court order to release over 30,000 convicted felons from California state prisons.

Includes complete source notes and a bibliography.

Recounting controversial First Amendment cases from the Red Scare era to Citizens United, William Bennett Turner—a Berkeley law professor who has argued three cases before the Supreme Court—shows how we’ve arrived at our contemporary understanding of free speech. His strange cast of heroes and villains, some drawn from cases he has litigated, includes Communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Ku Klux Klansmen, the world’s leading pornographer, prison wardens, dogged reporters, federal judges, a computer whiz, and a countercultural comedian. This is a fascinating look at how the scope of our First Amendment freedoms has evolved and the colorful characters behind some of the most important legal decisions of modern times. “Turner tells fascinating stories of unlikely heroes and explains difficult legal issues clearly and concisely, educating and entertaining at the same time.”—Elizabeth Farnsworth, The PBS News Hour