This year in America and for decades to come many of the biggest issues facing the country

won't be decided by the president in the White House.

They won't be decided by members of Congress.

Instead, they'll be decided by the justices of the US Supreme Court.

From guns and money and politics

to race abortion and immigration.

The last word will come from the unelected men and women

in the palatial courtroom on top of the marble steps where I'm standing now.

And if that sounds extraordinary, so is the fact that the future of the court and the US Constitution will be determined by the US

presidential election in November. I do think the Supreme Court and the vacancy

should make the role of the court and the views of the president on the

Constitution even more important in this election than in previous elections.

And so for this program on BBC World Service, I'm looking at how the justices of the United

States Supreme Court have come to loom so large in American public life, how they've come to be the court in the center.

It is the final word in our American form of government. That is a very powerful intoxicating avenue for any advocate.

My name is Jeffrey Rosen. I'm president of the National

Constitution Center just up the East Coast in Philadelphia. The National

Constitution Center was created by the United States Congress

to be America's only nonpartisan Center for Constitutional Education and debate.

In this program, I'll be closely examining the institution in front of me.

I want to understand why the justices are at the center of American politics.

And I want to ask whether the court is a legal institution, a political institution, or some combination of the two.

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