"Required reading for all students of American constitutionalism, especially judges."—Choice
"A solid, well-researched, and well-written piece of scholarship."—The Review of Politics
"A splendid and significant contribution to the interpretive debate."—American Political Science Review
"Even those readers who will disagree with Franck’s verdict on the modern Court will find his analysis of the historical judicial statesman stimulating in its initiation of new questions about the judicial role."—American Review of Politics
"This is a stimulating, provocative, challenging, powerfully argued, occasionally irksome book which deserves a careful reading b scholars interested in the hoary grand question of American constitutional studies: the origins and extend of judicial review."—American Journal of Legal History
"A probing, thoughtful, and forceful contribution to the growing body of literature which, by examining the origins of judicial review in its historical context, clarifies and deepens our understanding of the principles of republican self-government that define the American regime."—Herman Belz, editor of To Form a More Perfect Union: The Critical Ideas of the Constitution
"Franck's reexamination of the place of natural law in the early Supreme Court is fresh, illuminating, and long overdue. His scholarship is incisive and profound, and the exegeses of early Supreme Court opinions are often brilliant."—Robert L. Clinton, author of Marbury v. Madison and Judicial Review
"Franck not only succeeds in paving a once-rough trail blazed by Wallace Mendelson, Raoul Berger, Robert Bork, Gary McDowell, Christopher Wolfe, and Robert Clinton, but in the process opens new vistas. A closely reasoned and intelligent work, written with clarity and force."—James R. Stoner, Jr., author of Common Law and Liberal Theory: Coke, Hobbes, and the Origins of American Constitutionalism
"Transcending the categories of today's debate over the Supreme Court, Franck offers the wise perspective of John Marshall and America's Founders. This is a valuable contribution to the ongoing rediscovery of the political philosophy of constitutional liberty."—Thomas G. West, professor of politics, University of Dallas, and Ahmanson Fellow in Religion and Politics, the Claremont Institute