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Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights
“A devastating, passionate takedown of Chief Justice John Roberts's Supreme Court by a Washington insider.” —Jane Mayer, author of Dark Money
In the last twenty years the US Supreme Court has radically curtailed voting rights, undermined anti-corruption measures, encouraged extreme political gerrymandering, restricted the regulation of guns, and obliterated the constitutional right to control one’s reproductive choices. This transformation was orchestrated by a billionaire-backed reactionary political movement, whose interests Chief Justice John Roberts has been all too willing to serve.
Without Precedent explodes the falsehood that Roberts is a fair-minded institutionalist who works to blunt the worst impulses of other Republican appointees to the court when, in fact, he has led the rightward transformation of the court’s jurisprudence while presiding over the most corrupt and corrupted Supreme Court in American history.
Informed by Lisa Graves’s experience working on judicial issues for all three branches of the federal government, and based on years of intensive research, Without Precedent not only exposes Roberts as the reactionary politician in robes he has always been but delivers a vigorous plan of judicial reform designed to overcome the divisive, discriminatory, destructive, and anti-democratic machinations of the Roberts court.
In the last twenty years the US Supreme Court has radically curtailed voting rights, undermined anti-corruption measures, encouraged extreme political gerrymandering, restricted the regulation of guns, and obliterated the constitutional right to control one’s reproductive choices. This transformation was orchestrated by a billionaire-backed reactionary political movement, whose interests Chief Justice John Roberts has been all too willing to serve.
Without Precedent explodes the falsehood that Roberts is a fair-minded institutionalist who works to blunt the worst impulses of other Republican appointees to the court when, in fact, he has led the rightward transformation of the court’s jurisprudence while presiding over the most corrupt and corrupted Supreme Court in American history.
Informed by Lisa Graves’s experience working on judicial issues for all three branches of the federal government, and based on years of intensive research, Without Precedent not only exposes Roberts as the reactionary politician in robes he has always been but delivers a vigorous plan of judicial reform designed to overcome the divisive, discriminatory, destructive, and anti-democratic machinations of the Roberts court.
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309 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 30, 2025
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June 21, 2025
Well, if you thought Roberts was awful before, this book succinctly outlines just HOW MUCH WORSE he really, truly is for America and the American people. Well, for the non-megarich American people, anyway. I mean, I remember the 2000 election and the outcome, as well as who helped orchestrate that mess. I remember not wanting him even on the Court, much less as the Chief Justice. And I didn’t know the half of it. Seriously.
This is a man who truly believes he’s above the law. Above the Constitution. Above any and all norms and legal precedents or practices. As long as he wants it, he makes it so. He doesn’t care who he steps on, what he upends, or the damage done as long as he obtains all the power possible. He’s 100% a Project 2025 proponent. He’s absolutely a bigot. But he has disdain for anyone not born on third base, rounding home. And it shows all too clearly. Even more so now.
So I have to hope for good in the future. Because as long as Roberts, his Opus Dei and Project 2025 cronies, and the Republican far-right extremists are at the wheel, we’re up a creek. And that creek will likely be full of contaminated water soon enough, too.
This is a man who truly believes he’s above the law. Above the Constitution. Above any and all norms and legal precedents or practices. As long as he wants it, he makes it so. He doesn’t care who he steps on, what he upends, or the damage done as long as he obtains all the power possible. He’s 100% a Project 2025 proponent. He’s absolutely a bigot. But he has disdain for anyone not born on third base, rounding home. And it shows all too clearly. Even more so now.
So I have to hope for good in the future. Because as long as Roberts, his Opus Dei and Project 2025 cronies, and the Republican far-right extremists are at the wheel, we’re up a creek. And that creek will likely be full of contaminated water soon enough, too.
November 26, 2025
Without Precedent: How Chief Justice John Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights, Lisa Graves, 2025, 358 pages, Dewey 347.732634, ISBN 9781645030676.
An excerpt here: https://zeteo.com/p/how-chief-justice...
A strength of this book is in making clear that it has been a very few obscenely-wealthy men behind the successful efforts to remake the U.S. judiciary to serve wealth at the expense of everyone else. p. 96.
Also clues us in to the partisan political nature of our federal judge-selection process. Senators can and do refuse to fill court vacancies under an opposition-party president. pp. 62-66, 80, 141, 149. Republican senators may allow a Democratic president to pick a justice, but only an older one, so he or she won't serve long. p. 33.
The Supreme Court chooses its cases: 60 to 80 a year heard, out of 8,000 to 9,000 available. Right-wing organizations tee up a flood of cases for the Court to use to give more rights to wealth and power, fewer rights to the rest of us. pp. 40-41.
GRAFT
Billionaires with business before the Court lavish gifts on Justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and other pro-billionaire justices. Alito's and Thomas's wives work with right-wing organizations to effect pro-billionaire judicial decisions. The law requires that justices disqualify themselves from any case in which they have a conflict of interest. Roberts doesn't enforce that law, and violates it himself. pp. 7-10, 47-56, 78, 92, 103, 111-116, 120-125, 128-133, 137, 140, 144, 164-165. In Snyder v. United States, 2024, the six Republican justices made bribery and corruption legal. pp. 151-153. pdf: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions... Ketanji Brown Jackson's dissent is at p. 23 of 44.
GUNS
Each year, the U.S. gun industry manufactures 7 million guns (not counting for the military) and takes in $9 billion, while gun violence kills more than 40,000 people in America and wounds twice as many. Guns are the leading cause of death for U.S. children and teens. (5% of U.S.-made guns are exported, while another 7 million guns are imported from foreign manufacturers. The U.S. has 400 million guns and 335 million people.) In 2008, the Roberts Court created an individual right to bear arms, overturning centuries of precedent giving the right only to state militias. The Court invalidated handgun bans everywhere in the U.S. (but not in the Supreme Court building). There can now be no gun restrictions that weren't on the books in 1791. p. 169. Scalia said he would not rule out a right to bear hand-held rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes. p. 165. pp. 158-175. https://www.everytown.org/issues/
1989-1993 Roberts enforced right-wing political doctrine as deputy solicitor general under G.H.W. Bush. Roberts wrote that the abortion-access rights conferred by Roe v. Wade are wrong. pp. 36-38.
1992.01 G.H.W. Bush nominated Roberts to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC circuit--but Joe Biden, Senate Judiciary Committee chair, didn't move the nomination to a confirmation vote, so Roberts would wait until G.W. Bush's presidency for the job. Republican senators refused to fill judgeships during the Clinton presidency, to keep the seats open for a Republican president to fill. pp. 49, 54, 62, 65-66, 71, 75-96.
2000.11-12 Lawyers John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett helped G.W. Bush fight the Florida recount. Republican U.S. Supreme Court justices Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, O'Connor, and Kennedy stopped the recount of votes in Florida, which had been reducing George W. Bush's margin of victory over Al Gore. Dissenting were Stevens, Ginsberg, Breyer, Souter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_v.... The Florida supreme court had on 2000.12.08 ordered a manual recount: vote-tabulation machines had failed to count 61,000 ballots. On 2000.12.09, the Republican justices stopped the recount, and on 2000.12.12 declared Bush the winner. 2001.01, Bush staff started implementing right-wing Heritage Foundation plans. Termites are now in charge of the treehouse. pp. 2-3, 47-56.
2001.05 G.W. Bush nominated Roberts (as had his father, unsuccessfully, nine years earlier) to the DC circuit court, on the recommendation of the right-wing Federalist Society. Roberts assumed office in 2003. pp. 4, 54-57.
2004.12-2005.07 While Roberts was interviewing for the Supreme Court job, he was deciding a case in favor of the G.W. Bush administration, deciding that a driver for al Qaeda wasn't entitled to Geneva Convention protections. Roberts violated federal law by refusing to disqualify himself from the case. He broke the law, gave Bush his preferred ruling, and got the Supreme Court job. pp. 111-116.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
2005.09.29 Senate confirmed John Roberts as chief justice. pp. 4, 13, 20.
2006.01.31 Samuel Alito succeeded Sandra Day O'Connor, wrenching the court to the right on abortion, race, religion, and women's rights. p. 27.
2006.02.21 Roberts Court accepted a case to overturn a 2000 precedent and ban late-term abortions, Gonzalez v Carhart. p. 27.
2006.11 Roberts scheduled oral arguments in the so-called partial-birth abortion case for the day after election day, ensuring airplay. p. 39
2007.04 The Roberts Court reversed precedent, gave states power to restrict abortion access. p. 39.
2010-present Billionaires and corporations unleash a flood of cash to get their way in elections, after the Roberts Court Citizens United decision. pp. 7-8.
2021.01.06 Donald Trump incited an insurrection at the Capitol in D.C., calling on a mob to use violence to stop the legitimate transfer of power to the incoming administration. The mob killed several people. Roberts's Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on 2024.07.01 that Trump was above the law. This rewrites the Constitution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_v... pp. 116-120, 124, 127-128, 307-309.
2022 Court overturned Roe v. Wade. p. 167.
2025.09 This book published.
LISA GRAVES https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Gr... (wikipedia has little of the following resumé:)
True North Research executive director https://truenorthresearch.org
2018-2022 Documented.net founder https://documented.net pp. 91, 101-104, 107-108, 146.
2009-2017 Center for Media and Democracy executive director. https://www.exposedbycmd.org pp. 125-127.
2005 American Civil Liberties Union senior legislative strategist for national security. p. 3.
2002.01-2005 U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee chief counsel for nominations for Sen. Patrick Leahy. pp. 1-3, 5, 59-64, 77-87, 125-126, 146.
2001.05-2001.12 Anticorruption lawyer in the federal judiciary. p. 58-60.
1998-2001.05. Lawyer in Department of Justice policy office. 2001.01 deputy assistant attorney general. pp. 47, 53-54, 58-59, 61-62, 65, 165-166.
1993 summer associate at DC law offices of Kirkland & Ellis, under Ken Starr. pp. 31-36.
1967 born. p. 32.
SEE ALSO
/Justice on the Brink: The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the
Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months that Transformed the Supreme Court/, Linda Greenhouse, 2021. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And others:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
WEBSITES
ProPublica https://www.propublica.org
Accountable.us https://accountable.us
An excerpt here: https://zeteo.com/p/how-chief-justice...
A strength of this book is in making clear that it has been a very few obscenely-wealthy men behind the successful efforts to remake the U.S. judiciary to serve wealth at the expense of everyone else. p. 96.
Also clues us in to the partisan political nature of our federal judge-selection process. Senators can and do refuse to fill court vacancies under an opposition-party president. pp. 62-66, 80, 141, 149. Republican senators may allow a Democratic president to pick a justice, but only an older one, so he or she won't serve long. p. 33.
The Supreme Court chooses its cases: 60 to 80 a year heard, out of 8,000 to 9,000 available. Right-wing organizations tee up a flood of cases for the Court to use to give more rights to wealth and power, fewer rights to the rest of us. pp. 40-41.
GRAFT
Billionaires with business before the Court lavish gifts on Justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and other pro-billionaire justices. Alito's and Thomas's wives work with right-wing organizations to effect pro-billionaire judicial decisions. The law requires that justices disqualify themselves from any case in which they have a conflict of interest. Roberts doesn't enforce that law, and violates it himself. pp. 7-10, 47-56, 78, 92, 103, 111-116, 120-125, 128-133, 137, 140, 144, 164-165. In Snyder v. United States, 2024, the six Republican justices made bribery and corruption legal. pp. 151-153. pdf: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions... Ketanji Brown Jackson's dissent is at p. 23 of 44.
GUNS
Each year, the U.S. gun industry manufactures 7 million guns (not counting for the military) and takes in $9 billion, while gun violence kills more than 40,000 people in America and wounds twice as many. Guns are the leading cause of death for U.S. children and teens. (5% of U.S.-made guns are exported, while another 7 million guns are imported from foreign manufacturers. The U.S. has 400 million guns and 335 million people.) In 2008, the Roberts Court created an individual right to bear arms, overturning centuries of precedent giving the right only to state militias. The Court invalidated handgun bans everywhere in the U.S. (but not in the Supreme Court building). There can now be no gun restrictions that weren't on the books in 1791. p. 169. Scalia said he would not rule out a right to bear hand-held rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes. p. 165. pp. 158-175. https://www.everytown.org/issues/
1989-1993 Roberts enforced right-wing political doctrine as deputy solicitor general under G.H.W. Bush. Roberts wrote that the abortion-access rights conferred by Roe v. Wade are wrong. pp. 36-38.
1992.01 G.H.W. Bush nominated Roberts to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC circuit--but Joe Biden, Senate Judiciary Committee chair, didn't move the nomination to a confirmation vote, so Roberts would wait until G.W. Bush's presidency for the job. Republican senators refused to fill judgeships during the Clinton presidency, to keep the seats open for a Republican president to fill. pp. 49, 54, 62, 65-66, 71, 75-96.
2000.11-12 Lawyers John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett helped G.W. Bush fight the Florida recount. Republican U.S. Supreme Court justices Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, O'Connor, and Kennedy stopped the recount of votes in Florida, which had been reducing George W. Bush's margin of victory over Al Gore. Dissenting were Stevens, Ginsberg, Breyer, Souter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_v.... The Florida supreme court had on 2000.12.08 ordered a manual recount: vote-tabulation machines had failed to count 61,000 ballots. On 2000.12.09, the Republican justices stopped the recount, and on 2000.12.12 declared Bush the winner. 2001.01, Bush staff started implementing right-wing Heritage Foundation plans. Termites are now in charge of the treehouse. pp. 2-3, 47-56.
2001.05 G.W. Bush nominated Roberts (as had his father, unsuccessfully, nine years earlier) to the DC circuit court, on the recommendation of the right-wing Federalist Society. Roberts assumed office in 2003. pp. 4, 54-57.
2004.12-2005.07 While Roberts was interviewing for the Supreme Court job, he was deciding a case in favor of the G.W. Bush administration, deciding that a driver for al Qaeda wasn't entitled to Geneva Convention protections. Roberts violated federal law by refusing to disqualify himself from the case. He broke the law, gave Bush his preferred ruling, and got the Supreme Court job. pp. 111-116.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
2005.09.29 Senate confirmed John Roberts as chief justice. pp. 4, 13, 20.
2006.01.31 Samuel Alito succeeded Sandra Day O'Connor, wrenching the court to the right on abortion, race, religion, and women's rights. p. 27.
2006.02.21 Roberts Court accepted a case to overturn a 2000 precedent and ban late-term abortions, Gonzalez v Carhart. p. 27.
2006.11 Roberts scheduled oral arguments in the so-called partial-birth abortion case for the day after election day, ensuring airplay. p. 39
2007.04 The Roberts Court reversed precedent, gave states power to restrict abortion access. p. 39.
2010-present Billionaires and corporations unleash a flood of cash to get their way in elections, after the Roberts Court Citizens United decision. pp. 7-8.
2021.01.06 Donald Trump incited an insurrection at the Capitol in D.C., calling on a mob to use violence to stop the legitimate transfer of power to the incoming administration. The mob killed several people. Roberts's Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on 2024.07.01 that Trump was above the law. This rewrites the Constitution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_v... pp. 116-120, 124, 127-128, 307-309.
2022 Court overturned Roe v. Wade. p. 167.
2025.09 This book published.
LISA GRAVES https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Gr... (wikipedia has little of the following resumé:)
True North Research executive director https://truenorthresearch.org
2018-2022 Documented.net founder https://documented.net pp. 91, 101-104, 107-108, 146.
2009-2017 Center for Media and Democracy executive director. https://www.exposedbycmd.org pp. 125-127.
2005 American Civil Liberties Union senior legislative strategist for national security. p. 3.
2002.01-2005 U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee chief counsel for nominations for Sen. Patrick Leahy. pp. 1-3, 5, 59-64, 77-87, 125-126, 146.
2001.05-2001.12 Anticorruption lawyer in the federal judiciary. p. 58-60.
1998-2001.05. Lawyer in Department of Justice policy office. 2001.01 deputy assistant attorney general. pp. 47, 53-54, 58-59, 61-62, 65, 165-166.
1993 summer associate at DC law offices of Kirkland & Ellis, under Ken Starr. pp. 31-36.
1967 born. p. 32.
SEE ALSO
/Justice on the Brink: The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the
Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months that Transformed the Supreme Court/, Linda Greenhouse, 2021. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And others:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
WEBSITES
ProPublica https://www.propublica.org
Accountable.us https://accountable.us
October 17, 2025
What a fascinating book. Graves connects all the dots to give you a behind the scenes look and the twists and turns that the supreme court has been taking in recent years. If you have felt confounded by recent decisions, consider this book as the guide to lay bare the motivations for their actions.
How it all came about: The book naturally gives a good coverage of the Federalist Society and the founder Leonard Leo who was involved in all of the supreme court justice picks from the Republicans in the last 20 years, and John Roberts was one of his. We all remember Merrit Garland nomination dragging on for more than 12 months while Obama was president, while the next justice confirmed in a few weeks just before Trump left office. This well crafted movement has literally changed the course of US history.
He attacks voting rights: It can take years sometimes for a case to make its way to the supreme court, but sometimes it is very quick. Take for example when Colorado decided to leave Trump off the ballot, and miraculously a couple week later the supreme court has a ruling on that. On the other hand, decisions on unfair hyper-partisan gerrymandering in South Carolina were delayed month after months until after the election that favored the Republicans. The book outlines these cases with the facts and detail that make it clear that Roberts has an agenda, and that is to bring Christianity into the US government.
He has personally attacked women's health rights: Within a couple months of arriving at the supreme court he was already started by deciding cases that weakened women's rights for contraception and abortion. Steadily case by case this was weakened until the crowing achievement of overruling Roe vs Wade. He ruled that Hobby Lobby can legitimately prevent employees from using benefits for birth control.
He helps the rich get richer: If you consider of the last 134 votes the justices have made, 132 of them fell along simple lines: the Republican judges all voted for corporate interests, while the liberal judges voted for worker's rights. That is not surprising when you consider that the Koch brothers are funding the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation which backs this agenda. When it came to reversing decision by lower courts, it reversed only two cases that favored corporate interested, while in the same period reversing 50 cases favoring plaintiffs or government.
He helps politicians get kickbacks: Have you wondered how it is legal for Donald Trump to brazenly amass a personal fortune in the last 9 months, look no further than the Roberts court ruling in 2024 making it OK for elected officials to receive large "thank you" donations for doing good work. Even donation to the tune of 400 million dollars from foreign countries. A few years ago that would have been illegal, but it is all OK now.
He helps the polluters pollute: Remember when the court found that the EPA had no right to regulate carbon as an emission. That was based on an entirely invented new concept of "major question doctrine" which appears nowhere in the constitution and never in any prior case.
He attacks the little guy: You might remember Biden attempting to forgive student load. No citizens were harmed by this, but the politicians of six state trumped up a suit and in no time at all Roberts took it upon himself to write the decision striking down the decision for load dept relief under Covid.
The list goes on and on, and I am not going to repeat the entire book here. You have to read it to believe the depth of coordination that is behind empowering the corporate elite, and diminishing rights for common Americans. It is all hidden under a patina of being Mr Nice Guy, but don't be fooled.
How it all came about: The book naturally gives a good coverage of the Federalist Society and the founder Leonard Leo who was involved in all of the supreme court justice picks from the Republicans in the last 20 years, and John Roberts was one of his. We all remember Merrit Garland nomination dragging on for more than 12 months while Obama was president, while the next justice confirmed in a few weeks just before Trump left office. This well crafted movement has literally changed the course of US history.
He attacks voting rights: It can take years sometimes for a case to make its way to the supreme court, but sometimes it is very quick. Take for example when Colorado decided to leave Trump off the ballot, and miraculously a couple week later the supreme court has a ruling on that. On the other hand, decisions on unfair hyper-partisan gerrymandering in South Carolina were delayed month after months until after the election that favored the Republicans. The book outlines these cases with the facts and detail that make it clear that Roberts has an agenda, and that is to bring Christianity into the US government.
He has personally attacked women's health rights: Within a couple months of arriving at the supreme court he was already started by deciding cases that weakened women's rights for contraception and abortion. Steadily case by case this was weakened until the crowing achievement of overruling Roe vs Wade. He ruled that Hobby Lobby can legitimately prevent employees from using benefits for birth control.
He helps the rich get richer: If you consider of the last 134 votes the justices have made, 132 of them fell along simple lines: the Republican judges all voted for corporate interests, while the liberal judges voted for worker's rights. That is not surprising when you consider that the Koch brothers are funding the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation which backs this agenda. When it came to reversing decision by lower courts, it reversed only two cases that favored corporate interested, while in the same period reversing 50 cases favoring plaintiffs or government.
He helps politicians get kickbacks: Have you wondered how it is legal for Donald Trump to brazenly amass a personal fortune in the last 9 months, look no further than the Roberts court ruling in 2024 making it OK for elected officials to receive large "thank you" donations for doing good work. Even donation to the tune of 400 million dollars from foreign countries. A few years ago that would have been illegal, but it is all OK now.
He helps the polluters pollute: Remember when the court found that the EPA had no right to regulate carbon as an emission. That was based on an entirely invented new concept of "major question doctrine" which appears nowhere in the constitution and never in any prior case.
He attacks the little guy: You might remember Biden attempting to forgive student load. No citizens were harmed by this, but the politicians of six state trumped up a suit and in no time at all Roberts took it upon himself to write the decision striking down the decision for load dept relief under Covid.
The list goes on and on, and I am not going to repeat the entire book here. You have to read it to believe the depth of coordination that is behind empowering the corporate elite, and diminishing rights for common Americans. It is all hidden under a patina of being Mr Nice Guy, but don't be fooled.
September 22, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Type Books for this advance ARC in return for an honest review.
Without Precedent is a well researched look at how Chief Justice Roberts and the dark money donors including the Koch Brothers and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society have hijacked the Supreme Court and destroyed our democracy with politically driven decisions ignoring decades of precedent and the Legal Doctrine of stare decisis.
I knew this Court was the most corrupt Supreme Court in our Nation's history but until Lisa Graves laid it all out in this concise manner I had no idea how cold and calculated the dismantling our most sacred rights and beliefs was by the Chief Justice and the power brokers he so shamelessly serves.
As a Trial Litigator, the most important job for an Attorney is to "win" at the Trial Court level as the Appellate Courts are supposed to rely upon the Fact Findings of the Trial Court Judge ( or jury ) and only address errors of law or unconstitutional rulings. In some of the most egregious Decisions of the "Roberts Court" the corrupt Justices including Thomas, Alito and the Trump appointees, Gorsich, Kavanaugh and Barrett have ignored the facts ( and even the Laws ) applied by the Lower Courts in order to create new Laws not contemplated by the Statutes or the Constitution of the USA.
Although most of these Catholic/Republican Justices swore before the Senate that they would follow precedent ( stare decisis ) and not let their religious beliefs or Political Affiliations influence their Decisions, with the backing of the dark money they have dismantled Voting Rights, the Regulatory Authority of Federal Agencies, allowed Trump to have absolute immunity, not to mention overturning Roe v. Wade. It was this latter ruling on abortion that was the main focus of the Federalist Society, but as it got more powerful , due to influx of millions of dollars from corporate donations, it took on an even more ominous task to destroy the rights of citizens in favor of the corporations, this centuries robber barons of the past.
Graves does a wonderful job of breaking down the various ways in which the Chief Justice has ignored basic principals like recusal of a jurist by insuring that the Supreme Court remains unchecked by Ethics rules that every other Federal Judge must abide by, to allow Thomas and Alito to rule on January 6 cases and Trumps criminal charges, despite more than just the appearance of impropriety, in order to serve his true masters, the almighty dollars of the dark money donors and the Republican Party.
If you can stomach reading about this incredible level of corruption, I highly recommend Without Precedent.
Without Precedent is a well researched look at how Chief Justice Roberts and the dark money donors including the Koch Brothers and Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society have hijacked the Supreme Court and destroyed our democracy with politically driven decisions ignoring decades of precedent and the Legal Doctrine of stare decisis.
I knew this Court was the most corrupt Supreme Court in our Nation's history but until Lisa Graves laid it all out in this concise manner I had no idea how cold and calculated the dismantling our most sacred rights and beliefs was by the Chief Justice and the power brokers he so shamelessly serves.
As a Trial Litigator, the most important job for an Attorney is to "win" at the Trial Court level as the Appellate Courts are supposed to rely upon the Fact Findings of the Trial Court Judge ( or jury ) and only address errors of law or unconstitutional rulings. In some of the most egregious Decisions of the "Roberts Court" the corrupt Justices including Thomas, Alito and the Trump appointees, Gorsich, Kavanaugh and Barrett have ignored the facts ( and even the Laws ) applied by the Lower Courts in order to create new Laws not contemplated by the Statutes or the Constitution of the USA.
Although most of these Catholic/Republican Justices swore before the Senate that they would follow precedent ( stare decisis ) and not let their religious beliefs or Political Affiliations influence their Decisions, with the backing of the dark money they have dismantled Voting Rights, the Regulatory Authority of Federal Agencies, allowed Trump to have absolute immunity, not to mention overturning Roe v. Wade. It was this latter ruling on abortion that was the main focus of the Federalist Society, but as it got more powerful , due to influx of millions of dollars from corporate donations, it took on an even more ominous task to destroy the rights of citizens in favor of the corporations, this centuries robber barons of the past.
Graves does a wonderful job of breaking down the various ways in which the Chief Justice has ignored basic principals like recusal of a jurist by insuring that the Supreme Court remains unchecked by Ethics rules that every other Federal Judge must abide by, to allow Thomas and Alito to rule on January 6 cases and Trumps criminal charges, despite more than just the appearance of impropriety, in order to serve his true masters, the almighty dollars of the dark money donors and the Republican Party.
If you can stomach reading about this incredible level of corruption, I highly recommend Without Precedent.
December 9, 2025
The author, Lisa Graves, worked in the political world, aiding congressmen in choosing to vote for or against judicial nominees at the time of Roberts's rise. This book felt like Graves writing about her hatred of Roberts in the burn book, and I mean that positively. She makes the (correct!) argument that Roberts has worked hard to make a show of being politically neutral while actually doing everything in his power to orchestrate a fairly right-wing political agenda. I think journalists often put their focus on Alito and Thomas because they make it easy to through their blatant partisanship and clear examples of bias in cases they are hearing. However, Graves truly opened my eyes to the monster that is Roberts, and my biggest complaint about this book is that it wasn't written sooner.
Thank you to PublicAffairs and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to PublicAffairs and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 21, 2025
Lisa Graves digs into how the U.S. Supreme Court has been shaped by right-wing influence and corporate money. Graves, a former Justice Department official and Senate staffer, exposes how groups like the Federalist Society and billionaires like the Koch network have helped build a judiciary that serves conservative interests over public ones.
It’s part investigative journalism, part historical analysis, and it highlights how this captured Court has eroded democratic norms and civil rights under the guise of "originalism."
It’s part investigative journalism, part historical analysis, and it highlights how this captured Court has eroded democratic norms and civil rights under the guise of "originalism."
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews