The warren court looms large in shaping people's understanding, or may be better put misunderstanding of the supreme court as an institution. Many liberals have long looked to the court to protect minorities against the tyranny of the majority. But it makes it really hard for meu to understand that this is an exception to the rule for a generally reactionary institution and obscures the fact that it was mass democratic politics of the new deal,. civil rights, great society era that made Warren court what it was.