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"There are moments in American history when all eyes are focused on a federal court: when its bench speaks for millions of Americans, and when its decision changes the course of history. More often, the story of the federal judiciary is simply a tale of hard work: of finding order in the chaotic system of state and federal law, local custom, and contentious lawyering. The Federal Courts is a story of all of these courts and the judges and justices who served on them, of the case law they made, and of the acts of Congress and the administrative organs that shaped the courts. But, more importantly, this is a story of the courts' development and their vital part in America's history. The federal judiciary is not elective and its principal judges serve during good behavior rather than at the pleasure of Congress, the President, or the electorate. But the independence that lifetime tenure theoretically confers did not and does not isolate the judiciary from political currents, partisan quarrels, and public opinion. Many vital political issues came to the federal courts, and the courts' decisions in turn shaped American politics. The Federal Courts is an essential account of the branch that provides what Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Judge Oliver Wendell Homes Jr. called ""a magic mirror, wherein we see reflected our own lives."""

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Peter Charles Hoffer is Distinguished Research Professor of History at the University of Georgia. He has authored or coauthored more than twenty books, including Clio among the Muses: Essays on History and the Humanities, The Historians' Paradox: The Study of History in Our Time, and The Clamor of Lawyers: The American Revolution and the Crisis in the Legal Profession. N. E. H. Hull, Distinguished Professor Emerita at Rutgers University, is the author or coauthor of many books, including The Woman Who Dared to Vote and The Supreme Court: An Essential History. Williamjames Hull Hoffer was a Henry Rutgers scholar at Rutgers University in New Brunswick before he entered law school, receiving both his JD and PhD. He now teaches at Seton Hall University. He is coauthor of The Federal Courts: An Essential History and The Clamor of Lawyers: The American Revolution and Crisis in the Legal Profession. Adam Verner is a full-time narrator and voice talent with over one hundred titles recorded. He is the recipient of AudioFile Earphones Awards for Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck and The Big It by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. Adam earned his MFA in acting from the Chicago College of the Fine Arts at Roosevelt University.

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