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The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America.

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The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America Jeffrey Rosen Times Books www.henryholt.com/timesbooks.htm 274 pp., $25

In the final chapter of The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America, author Jeffrey Rosen asserts the premise of the book: "Throughout the history of the Supreme Court, judicial temperament has helped to define the success or failure of individual justices and of the Court as a whole."

This seemingly simple assertion is actually controversial in many ways. It cuts against the grain of what many of us have been taught: that judges decide cases on the facts and the law, governed by principles and precedent. Getting along well with the other kids in the sandbox may be important for elementary school socialization, but surely issues of temperment are not a critical factor in determining the shape of the law and the meaning of the Constitution.

Whether or not his premise is counterintuitive, Rosen makes a strong case...

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