This program examines the creation of the court and follows it through the brink of the Civil War, paying particular attention to the fourth chief justice of the Supreme Court - John Marshall - and to his successor, Roger Taney. Marshall presided over one of the most famous cases before the court while Taney presided over one of the most infamous. In Marbury v. Madison (1803), Marshall found in an obscure case involving an unsigned judicial appointment the opportunity to assert the court's most important power: the right of judicial review. In Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), however, Taney, the next chief justice, exercised that same power against the national government - to protect slavery. "It was a disaster," says James Simon, law professor, dean emeritus, New York Law School. "It was the worst opinion ever written in the history of the Supreme Court of the United States."

Explores the issues before the court from the aftermath of the Civil War through to the 1930s. This was a period of unprecedented economic growth as the nation industrialized but was also a time of unregulated work conditions - the court found itself squarely in the middle of what was almost class warfare. As corporations became more powerful they found an unlikely ally in the Supreme Court. While the 14th Amendment was passed to make certain that the states were obligated to recognize the rights of the newly freed slaves, the court would for almost 100 years use the amendment to protect not blacks but big business, recognizing corporations as "persons" and awarding them sweeping legal protection.

Program Three: A Nation of Liberties focuses on the court's reaction to state and federal legislation on Bill of Rights freedoms, with special attention to the explosion of civil rights cases from the early 1940s to the present. This program highlights the Warren Court as it confronts the issues of race, gender and religion. "This is a watershed time in the court's history," says Joan Biskupic, journalist and author, in THE SUPREME COURT. "You have World War II. You have McCarthyism. You have the Cold War. You have the civil rights struggles. There's tension between national security, national identity, free speech, individual rights. And it falls into the lap of these nine justices to sort it all out."

The Rehnquist Revolution investigates how the court has developed in more recent times. With a particular view to the leadership of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the series charts the rise in importance of the Court to become the institution most responsible for resolving the central questions of American life. The program also addresses the right to privacy, a key component in 1973's Roe v. Wade. "How in the world did such a conservative justice [Harry Blackmun] write this incredibly activist, liberal opinion in Roe"; asks Michael Klarman, James Monroe distinguished professor of law and professor of history, University of Virginia, in THE SUPREME COURT. "Well, if you go back and read the opinion it doesn't read as some sort of charter of feminist rights; it reads as a charter of doctors' rights."