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A Pleasant Change from the Usual Anti-Supreme Court Books Until I saw Levin on C-Span, I did not plan to buy this volume--I assumed it was just another in the long string of whacky "the Supreme Court is destroying our nation" genre of diatribes. Well, while I disagree with much of Levin's analysis, this is certainly a substantial volume deriving of serious attention. That being said, Levin's methodology is flawed in several respects. First, he equates judicial activism with non-originalist interpretation--yet many of the Court's supposed judicial "originalists" [Scalia, Rehnquist, Thomas] have been extremely activist in utilizing Court power as witness the 2000 election decisions. Second, much of the initial chapters is devoted to Levin simply ticking off various Supreme Court decisions which he considers to be subversive, crazy or both. Some of these decisions do certainly qualify as "self-inflected wounds" to be sure, but this approach becomes a bit tiresome. Things pick up, however, later with very strong chapters on immigration, the commerce clause, state power and other topics. It is clear that, to the extent Levin represents the "Federalist Society" point of view, Justice Kennedy has become a prime target of criticism, as to a lesser extent has Sanda Day O'Conner due to their "lapses" in upholding conservative interpretations of the Constitution in key cases. To his credit, Levin criticizes both the Florida Supreme Court (extensively) and the U.S. Supreme Court (a bit) relative to the 2000 election decisions. One of the most interesting and valuable sections of the book is Levin's focus on "liberal" interest groups hooking up with supporters on the Hill to try and frustrate conservative judicial nominations. He includes as an appendix various memos exchanged between interest groups and Senate staffers which are quite interesting to read. While they are, hardly, as shocking as Levin suggests, nonetheless they are quite fascinating--especially given the upcoming warfare that will ensue when President Bush nominates a Justice or Chief Justice. All told, a good solid read that stimulates the adrenalin.