ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In writing this book, we have benefited in innumerable ways from the support and thoughtful reactions of our families, friends, and colleagues. Their encouragement, candid feedback, constructive criticism, and insightful suggestions are reflected in every page of our exploration of the Roberts Court and the Constitution.

We are particularly grateful to those who read and commented on the whole manuscript: Michael Dorf, Sam Harbourt, Jason Harrow, Andrew Kaufman, Aaron Kotler, Philip Mayor, Mark Rosenbaum, Jarrod Schaeffer, Zachary Shemtob, Vivek Suri, and Mark Tushnet. We are also deeply indebted to those who offered invaluable counsel either on our book proposal at the outset or on individual chapters as we progressed: Jack Balkin, Aharon Barak, Randy Barnett, Josh Blackman, Tristan Duncan, Erin Earl, Cormac Early, Heather Gerken, Patrick Gudridge, Rick Hasen, David Hemenway, Justin Levitt, Anna Lvovsky, Erin Monju, Judith Resnik, Alan Rozenshtein, Peter Rubin, Rachel Sachs, Adam Samaha, Steven Shiffrin, Eugene Volokh, Lauren Weinstein, and Ernest Young.

We owe special thanks to Dean Martha Minow of Harvard Law School, who offered marvelous feedback on several chapters and was immensely supportive of this entire project. We also owe a special debt of gratitude to Larry’s longtime faculty assistant, Kathy McGillicuddy. Kathy’s genius for organization, technological savvy, and tremendous personal warmth made her a vital part of our team.

Over the past two years, we have been privileged to work with a stellar group of dedicated research assistants. It is our pleasure to thank them for their hard work and many contributions: Sam Barr, Andrew Chan, Samuel Cortina, Bryce Daigle, Christopher Ferro, Elizabeth Finley, Jon Gould, Greg Halperin, Caitlin Halpern, Brett Kalikow, David Korn, Nina Kovalenko, Natacha Lam, Michael Mencher, and Allison Trzop.

Ever since he first cast a vote of confidence in this book, John Sterling of Henry Holt and Company has made it better in every way. We are lucky to have benefited from his enthusiasm and editorial acumen—and from excellent work by everyone else at Henry Holt, notably including our copy editor Bonnie Thompson and our production editor Christopher O’Connell. We also thank our agent Ike Williams and his associate Katherine Flynn of the Kneerim, Williams & Bloom Agency for their wise and expert guidance.

We express special gratitude to Elizabeth Westling, who has read and reread the manuscript with unflagging care and made countless insightful suggestions from the perspective of a historian and a humanist rather than that of a lawyer. We thank her not only for her contributions as a careful and insightful reader but also for helping to set this whole book in motion.

Finally, we hasten to add the usual disclaimer that, much as we benefitted from the help of our friends, all errors are our own.

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From Larry Tribe: I want to thank the generations of remarkable students who have taught me at least as much as I have taught them, and my colleagues—past and present—at Harvard Law School and Harvard University for their generous friendship and collegiality. To the score of people it is not possible to acknowledge here and to my family, especially my son Mark, my daughter Kerry, and my brother Shurka, who have tolerated and encouraged my preoccupation with this project and others that preceded it: I owe you more than I can express in words, something I trust you’ll understand when you learn that I’m dedicating this book to you (and to my grandchildren Isabel, Sadie, Eno, and Emit) with all my love.

Although it is not customary to express gratitude to one’s coauthor, I must. Without my former constitutional law student, longtime research assistant, former head teaching fellow, and recent collaborator and friend, Joshua Matz, I could not have written this book.

Finally, I must add a special, personal note of thanks to Elizabeth: she made this book possible, was invariably supportive and loving (and always candid!) as my partner and muse, and she has inspired me every step of the way.

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From Joshua Matz: First and foremost, I thank my family, especially my parents and grandparents. It is impossible to overstate how much their support, advice, and encouragement have meant to me, both in writing this book and in so many other ways. Through years in which I largely vanished into two judicial clerkships and the world of the Roberts Court, my family has been a constant source of strength and inspiration. So I thank Merri and Ned Braunstein, Bill and Marie Matz, Genna and Jake Matz, Neil and Terri Matz, and Barbara and Jerry Tack—to whom I dedicate this book with love.

I have been lucky in my young career to benefit from the wisdom, knowledge, and guidance of many mentors: Susan Staub, Irwin Katz, and Robert Wilson before college; Warren Breckman, Sarah Igo, Peter Struck, Michael Weisberg, and Liliane Weissberg at the University of Pennsylvania; and Lawrence Goldman at Oxford University. At Harvard Law School, I was privileged to learn from many great scholars, including David Barron, Richard Fallon, Noah Feldman, Martha Field, Jody Freeman, Jacob Gersen, Nancy Gertner, Jon Hanson, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Michael Klarman, Jed Shugerman, Matthew Stephenson, Carol Steiker, William Stuntz, and Mark Tushnet. Their lessons complemented my work with the incredibly talented attorneys at Equality Advocates Pennsylvania, the Federal Defender of New York, the Innocence Project, Neufeld Scheck & Brustin, the Public Citizen Litigation Group, and SCOTUSblog. I have also learned much from the time I have been fortunate enough to spend clerking for two truly great judges: Judge J. Paul Oetken of the Southern District of New York and Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Finally, I must follow Larry in breaking custom and thank him for being such a remarkable mentor, friend, and coauthor. Like so many of his students before me—and like many more still to come—I credit Larry with bringing the Court and the Constitution to life in my mind. He is a true giant of the law, one of its greatest scholars, professors, and practitioners, and I have been humbled by the opportunity to work with him. He is also a kind and generous man, and a wonderful friend and coauthor. Because words would otherwise fail me, I will simply say to him, “Thank you.”