What do we want of our judges? And what can we reasonably expect from them? However much these questions bedevil us, we rarely ask them so directly. The first question has featured prominently in every contested federal judicial nomination and presidential campaign since Robert Bork, but the public and politicians generally neglect the second question. Constitutional theorists often act as if the role and limitations of judges are a mere nuisance; surely, they will suggest sotto voce, the best judge is the one who most closely tracks my own thinking—institutional constraints be damned....