Sign-In
Cart
Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today's Supreme Court
Hardcover
General LawGeneral Political ScienceUnited States Politics
Publisher Price: $32.00
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 0593800923
ISBN13: 9780593800928
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Published: Apr 14 2026
Pages: 416
Weight: 1.32
Height: 1.35 Width: 6.45 Depth: 9.50
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780593800928
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Published: Apr 14 2026
Pages: 416
Weight: 1.32
Height: 1.35 Width: 6.45 Depth: 9.50
Language: English
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A myth-busting glimpse into the inner workings of the Supreme Court, revealing what we get wrong about the Roberts Court, what the justices' clerks gossip about, and how to fix a court in crisis--from the popular ABC news pundit and top legal podcaster Isgur has all your answers in these smart, snappy, clear-eyed pages.
--Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams Most people get the Supreme Court all wrong. A smattering of high-profile decisions have popularized a simplistic idea of the Court and its justices. Yes, six of them were appointed by Republicans, and only three by Democrats. So, how does that 6-3 conservative majority explain why in the 2024-25 term, conservative Brett Kavanaugh was more likely to agree with liberal Elena Kagan than conservative Neil Gorsuch? Or why the court threw shade at Florida's attempt to ban drag shows? To truly understand the Court, argues Sarah Isgur, you have to look beyond partisan politics--the X-Axis. The wisest court watchers apply another measuring stick, the Y-Axis, where the nine justices span from order-loving institutionalists to true chaos agents. Once you appreciate these overlapping and even competing impulses, the Court begins to look a lot more like a 3-3-3 split than 6-3. The ultimate insider, Isgur takes readers on a deep dive inside the Supreme Court: how cases land at the Court's doorstep, which justices attend clerk happy hours (and which ones even bother showing up to the office), why conservatives already have buyer's remorse about Amy Coney Barrett, and how the whole judicial system is kind of a constitutional anomaly. She'll even help you decide whether you should throw your hat in the ring and go to law school! Blending irreverent humor and incisive commentary, Isgur goes underneath the robes--and shows us what we need to do to preserve the rule of law amid dicey times in this little self-governing experiment we've been running for the last 250 years.
Also in
United States Politics
Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race
Fording, Richard C.
Schram, Sanford F.
Soss, Joe
Paperback
$58.00
Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
Wolin, Sheldon S.
Paperback
$11.99
Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us about Our Past and Future
Shapiro, James
Hardcover
$10.99
Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets
Kretzmann, John P.
Paperback
$9.99
Scandinavians in the State House: How Nordic Immigrants Shaped Minnesota Politics
Bergman, Klas
Paperback
From $10.99
Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump
Haberman, Maggie
Swan, Jonathan
Hardcover
$30.60
The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader
Murray, Melissa
Hardcover
$27.00
Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America
Murphy, Chris
Hardcover
$26.10
Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded Usaid
Enrich, Nicholas
Hardcover
From $19.99
The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon
Schweizer, Peter
Hardcover
$30.88
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy
Perryman, Skye
Paperback
$16.14
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Rothstein, Richard
Paperback
$17.05
Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution
Kiernan, Denise
Hardcover
$28.80
The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation
Clyburn, Jim
Hardcover
$28.50
Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America's Justice Department
Davis, Aaron C.
Leonnig, Carol
Hardcover
From $17.99
Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution
Hemingway, Mollie
Hardcover
$30.40
Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile
Goodyear, Sarah
Gordon, Doug
Naparstek, Aaron
Hardcover
$25.20
The Promise of a Nation: Commemorating 250 Years of Patriotism, Resilience, and Aspirations from the National Collection
Smithsonian Institution
Hardcover
$38.00
Department of Fate: The Promise, the Power, and the Collapse of America's Most Consequential Institution
Maddow, Rachel
Hardcover
$33.25
The Counterrevolution: The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the Maga Movement
Hanson, Victor Davis
Hardcover
$32.30
American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America Into a Monarchy
Onishi, Bradley B.
Hardcover
$27.55
The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats - And Our Response - Will Change the World
Bremmer, Ian
Paperback
$18.05
All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump
Scaramucci, Anthony
Hardcover
$28.49
The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-Liners, One Republican Presidency, and the Raid on America's Courts
Wagner, Alex
Hardcover
$28.49
So Ordered: An Originalist's View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country
Alito, Samuel A., Jr.
Hardcover
$30.40
The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America
Rosen, Jeffrey
Hardcover
$27.90
Liar's Kingdom: How to Stop Trump's Deceit and Save America (Large Print Edition)
Weissmann, Andrew
Paperback
$31.00
Revenge for the Sixties: Sam Alito and the Triumph of the Conservative Legal Movement
Canellos, Peter S.
Hardcover
$29.45
A Revolution of Common Sense: How Donald Trump Stormed Washington and Fought for Western Civilization
Jennings, Scott
Hardcover
$30.40
How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will (Large Print Edition)
Kennedy, John
Paperback
$32.29
The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution: A Thousand-Year History
Peterson, Mark
Hardcover
$28.45
Don't Tell the President: The Best, Worst, and Mostly Untold Stories from Presidential Advance
Becker, Jean
Collamore, Tom
Hardcover
$30.40
Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People
Renan, Daphna
Bowie, Nikolas
Hardcover
$30.39
Trump's Ten Commandments: Strategic Lessons from the Trump Leadership Toolbox
Sonnenfeld, Jeffrey
Hardcover
$28.50
Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City
Ansfield, Bench
Hardcover
$28.79
When Companies Run the Courts: How Forced Arbitration Became America's Secret Justice System
Ballou, Brendan
Hardcover
$28.50
Common Sense in the Age of Trump: A Guide to Keeping Our Republic
Sparrow, Paul M.
Collins, Ronald K. L.
Huxtable, Russell W.
Paperback
$14.99
Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends
Schweizer, Peter
Paperback
$18.99
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Herman, Edward S.
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
From $11.99
Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution (Large Print Edition)
Kiernan, Denise
Hardcover
$56.55
The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (Large Print Edition)
Schweizer, Peter
Paperback
$34.68
The Game Changer: How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How to Fight
Ralston, Jon
Hardcover
$28.50
Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time (Tenth Anniversary Edition)
Speck, Jeff
Paperback
$19.95
How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood
Moskowitz, Pe
Paperback
$17.99
The Democracy We Must Keep: Seven Founders, Nine Documents, and the Ideas That Shaped America
Stewart, David O.
Paperback
$15.19
When You Come at the King: Inside Doj's Pursuit of the President, from Nixon to Trump
Honig, Elie
Hardcover
$28.49
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters
Nichols, Tom
Paperback
$17.98
The Church Committee Report: Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation Into the National Security State
Guariglia, Matthew
Hochman, Brian
Paperback
$21.84
The Presidential Pardon: The Short Clause with a Long, Troubled History
Prakash, Saikrishna Bangalore
Hardcover
$21.80
This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U. S. History (Large Print Edition)
Gage, Beverly
Hardcover
$55.10
We Are The Bad Guys: How The U.S. Wages War, Controls Economies, and Calls It Freedom
Lester, Michael
Paperback
$18.04
Princeton Review AP U.S. Government & Politics Premium Prep, 25th Edition: 6 Practice Tests + Digital Practice Online + Content Review
The Princeton Review
Paperback
$26.59
Reclaiming Your Community: You Don't Have to Move Out of Your Neighborhood to Live in a Better One
Carter, Majora
Paperback
$20.85
How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything in
Gardner, Dan
Flyvbjerg, Bent
Hardcover
$28.50
What Does the Constitution Actually Say?: A Non-Boring Guide to How Our Democracy Is Supposed to Work
Sheehan, Ben
Paperback
$18.99
Whiplash: From the Battle for Obamacare to the War on Science
Blumenthal, David
Morone, James a.
Hardcover
$28.50
Kicking the Hornet's Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump
Zoughbie, Daniel E.
Hardcover
$29.45
When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s
Ganz, John
Paperback
From $11.99
The Declaration Of Independence, United States Constitution, Bill Of Rights & Amendments
Fathers, Founding
Paperback
$8.58
Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden
O'Reilly, Bill
Dugard, Martin
Hardcover
$33.25
Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See
Mayhew, Kelly
Miller, Jim
Davis, Mike
Paperback
$24.65
AP U.S. Government and Politics Premium, 2027: Prep Book with 6 Practice Tests + Comprehensive Review + Online Practice (Barron's AP Prep)
Lader, Curt, M. S. Ed
Paperback
$28.49
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
Rothstein, Richard
Hardcover
$28.50
Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life
Klinenberg, Eric
Paperback
$19.00
Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
Ziblatt, Daniel
Levitsky, Steven
Paperback
$19.00
How the Democrats Lost America: Making Sense of the 2024 Election and the Future of American Politics
Ferson, Scott
Hardcover
$30.39
Glory, Grief, and the Gavel: An Inside Guide to Running for Speaker of the House
Leganski, John
Hardcover
$31.34
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President
Lee, Bandy X.
Paperback
$36.10
The Pacific Circuit: A Globalized Account of the Battle for the Soul of an American City
Madrigal, Alexis
Paperback
$18.00
The Gumbo Coalition: 10 Leadership Lessons That Help You Inspire, Unite, and Achieve
Morial, Marc
Paperback
$19.99
The Death and Life of Gentrification: A New Map of a Persistent Idea
Brown-Saracino, Japonica
Hardcover
$28.45