Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-318) and index.

The Rehnquist Court, which lasted almost twenty years, was molded in his image. In thirty-three years on the Supreme Court, from 1972 until his death in 2005 at age 80, Rehnquist was at the center of the Court's dramatic political transformation. He was a partisan, waging a quiet, constant battle to imbue the Court with a deep conservatism favoring government power over individual rights. He left behind no memoir and during his lifetime he made an effort to ensure that journalists would have scant material to work with. Jenkins explores the roots of his political and judicial convictions and showing how a brilliantly instinctive jurist created the ethos of the modern Supreme Court.