Charged with the responsibility of interpreting the Constitution, the Supreme Court has the awesome power to strike down laws enacted by our elected representatives. Why does the public accept the Court’s decisions and follow them, even when those decisions are highly unpopular? What must the Court do to maintain the public’s faith and help make our democracy work?

In Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge’s View—the bestseller now in paperback—Justice Stephen Breyer tackles these questions, offering an original approach to interpreting the Constitution that judges, lawyers, and scholars will look to for years to come. President Clinton nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on August 3, 1994.