'The Most Dangerous Branch,' Asks Whether The Supreme Court Has Become Too Powerful
In author David Kaplan's view, the top court has taken an increasing role in policy making, having issued critical decisions on abortion, voting rights, gun control, healthcare — and the president.
In an epigraph to The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court's Assault on the Constitution, Justice William J. Brennan is quoted as saying of the nation's highest court: "If you have five votes here, you can do anything."
Justice Brennan, who died in 1997, was celebrated for path-breaking opinions but also for his effectiveness as a behind-the-scenes, judicial deal-maker. In this possible majority of one that Brennan describes, author David A. Kaplan, a former legal affairs editor of , reads danger.
