
The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-Liners, One Republican Presidency, and the Raid on America's Courts
by Alex Wagner
The forty-year plan to steal America's courts.
For you if
you've been staring at Supreme Court decisions in disbelief and need to understand who did this
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The Supreme Court didn't drift right — it was taken. The Steal traces the forty-year operation by four strategists — Ed Meese, Paul Weyrich, Joe Coors, and Robert Bork — who systematically built the Federalist Society pipeline and remade the federal judiciary from the inside out, one appointment at a time. Wagner names the closed-door meetings, the ideological networks, the money behind the movement, and the deliberate strategy that produced a court capable of overturning Roe v. Wade and rolling back a century of civil rights gains. If you've ever looked at a Supreme Court decision and thought how is this legal — this book explains who made it possible, how they did it, and when they decided to.
Where This Book Lives
The conservative judicial project is the story behind every story — abortion, affirmative action, environmental regulation, executive power. Wagner doesn't give you talking points; she gives you the origin story: who these four men were, what they were afraid of, and how they turned one Republican presidency into a decades-long judicial realignment. A note: Wagner is a progressive journalist and this book declares its perspective — which is exactly why it belongs here, not a reason to hesitate.
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For the family bookshelf
Same idea, written for a younger reader. Good for reading together.

