Mr. Justice Hugo L. Black was F.D.R.'s first appointment to the Supreme Court. He has now served a quarter of a century on that august bench, and his record there is one of the finest in our history. What Mr. Dilliard has done in this book is to assemble a selection of excerpts from Black's Court Opinions which apply specifically to ""historic American freedoms and protections of the individual citizen"" as embodied in the Bill of Rights; he has dedicated it ""to the belief that current erosions in the Bill of Rights will be halted"". He has also included a brief biography, Black's James Madison lecture given at NYU School of Law in 1960, and an interview of Black by Prof. Edmond Cahn which took place in April, 1962. Mr. Dilliard's choice of key passages from the Opinions is unerring, and his synopses of the cases involved and their historical importance are as cogent as they are terse. The book provides a splendid review of basic issues faced by our government and citizenry, and also a clear picture of the intricate workings of judicial thought through the crucial 1940's and '50's. Justice Black's writings, however well grounded in the mechanics of legality, are never mired there; his simple and direct prose is a constant aid to the layman.