Prologue

Dedicated to my parents, Fred and Shirley Drane

The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in
all the states being capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.

John Locke. Second Treatise on Government (1689).

This book traces the history of the Supreme Court from its creation at the 1787 Constitutional Convention through the tenures of two of is most renowned Chief Justices: John Marshall and Roger Taney. Along the way you will meet the 37 men who “rode the circuit” and decided the landmark cases that shaped the nation’s legal system and precedents.