Rachel Shelden, Associate Professor of History at Penn State, is out this week with an important new account of the Supreme Court’s early history in which, she demonstrates, members of the Court felt free to participate in political affairs that strike many modern sensibilities as entirely inappropriate. Equally important, in The Political Supreme Court: A Forgotten History, Professor Shelden recounts the recasting of the Court at the turn of the 20th century as a supposedly apolitical institution. In light of recent controversies over consequential reversals of longstanding Court precedent and off-the-bench conduct of today’s Justices, this history provides needed context as the nation considers potential Court reform.