For eight years, the Roberts Court has been at the center of a constitutional maelstrom. In this acclaimed account, the much-honored, expert Supreme Court reporter Marcia Coyle reveals the fault lines in the conservative-dominated court led by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.

Seven minutes after President Obama put his signature to a landmark national health care insurance program, a lawyer in the office of Florida GOP attorney general Bill McCollum hit a computer key, sparking a legal challenge to the new law that would eventually reach the nation's highest court. Health care is only the...