“Just as the Jedi Council seems to be functioning on guesswork and mutual hypnosis more than actual expertise, the workings of the American Supreme Court too often seem, to an outsider who has not bought into this cult—say, a Canadian—more like the manufacture of after-the-fact rationales designed to give the appearance of footnoted legalism to what are, in truth, the same ideological passions that have the rest of the country in their grip.” Adam Gopnik explains how, beneath the robes, Supreme Court justices are sort of like the rest of us. Lessons for the Supreme Court from the Jedi Council.