tsinghua university press-pa贵宾会

the u.s. supreme court, composed of nine justices, has been likened to "nine scorpions in a bottle" - individuals who answer solely to the constitution and the law, operating as independent and equal entities. the process of judicial decision-making unfolds within a complex institutional ecosystem: whether to grant certiorari, how to vote on cases, who drafts opinions... all these steps follow a robust framework of rules and procedures. against this backdrop, the nine justices engage in intricate strategic interplay. in essence, nine scorpions share a single bottle, coexisting in a dynamic of collaboration and conflict. this book predominantly features highly contentious cases where rulings rarely offer black-and-white clarity, often residing in subjective gray areas. only by scrutinizing full opinions word-for-word can one grasp that dissenting views frequently shine equally-and sometimes outshine-majority rationales.