Contents -- 1. Introduction: The Court as Cultural Barometer -- 2. Watching Ourselves: The Thomas Hearings and National Character -- Inequality as Equality -- Offensiveness as Virtue -- Careerism and Sexual Equality -- Careerism and Responsibility -- Moralism and Opportunism -- 3. Shaping Law: Elitism and Democracy in the Bork Hearings -- Bork against the Mainstream -- Bork as the Mainstream -- Meeting the Enemy -- 4. Marching on Constitution Avenue: Public Protest and the Court -- Judges as Politicians -- Marching and Advocacy -- Legalism, Realism, and Edwin Meese's Heresy -- 5. Speaking before All Others: Interpretation as the Suppression of Disagreement -- The Rule of Law -- Legal Traditions and Constitutional Rights -- Political Resistance and the Expansion of Rights -- 6. Pursuing Visions: Interpretation as Moral Evasion -- Sexual Speech and Moral Climate -- Flag Burning and Political Ethos -- Boundlessness and Adjudication -- 7. Correcting the Political: Interpretation as Mind Control -- Regulating Sexist Speech -- The Court and Consciousness Raising -- Mind Control and Censorship -- 8. Arguing with Enemies: Interpretation as Invective -- Name-Calling in the Courts -- Judicial Restraint and Moral Heroism -- The Ideal of Moderation in a Divided Society -- Restraint and the Judicial Machine -- 9. Censoring Ourselves -- Principle Ascendant -- Principle,"Progress," and the Tradition of the Family -- Principle as Suppression -- Principle and Cultural Decline -- Notes -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.