One of the ways in which the American constitution is unique among the world's mature democracies is the vesting of the power of constitutional review in the ordinary courts rather than in a specialized constitutional body. Baude uses frank, understandable language to explain the relationship between the constition and our rule of law.

Without technical jurisdictional jargon, Baude is able to survey historical cases to analyze Article III, section 2 of the United States Constitution. However, Baude's work is vastly different from analytical works based on philosophical and technicalities of judicial jurisdiction. This work explores the relationship between the two, without drawing on the covert ideological premises of legal liberalism.