Bench Press is a first-of-its-kind collection of essays written by legal scholars, sitting judges, and working journalists assessing the state of judicial independence in the United States. "Each of them challenging in its own way, the essays treat the contemporary state of the judiciary from a variety of perspectives: judicial 'appearance,' methods of selecting judges, media treatment of the judiciary and its decisions, public conceptions, and others. The authors' approaches and conclusions are diverse, and this book promises to create fruitful discussion in judicial process, public law, and communications courses in which critical thinking is encouraged."