For example, Emanuel takes us back to November 23, 1960, a particularly ugly day in the annals of political attacks upon the judiciary. U.S. District Judge J. Skelly Wright was a Louisiana-born federal judge who oversaw the desegregation of public schools in New Orleans at great personal peril and cost. Here is what he had to deal with when he sought in his own backyard to implement the mandates of the two Brown v. Board of Education decisions. Of November 23, Emanuel writes:

[A]n extraordinary session of the Louisiana legislature had been interrupted by a 'mourners' march' commemorating November 14, 1960, when a handful of African American children had first attended white public schools in New Orleans. The paraders carried a coffin in which lay a blackened doll dressed in judicial robes and labeled "Smelly Wright.' Louisiana lawmakers gave the marchers a standing ovation.

There are plenty of similar grim examples in Emanuel's book -- and also in Jack Bass's older book on the subject, the title of which says it all: Unsung Heroes: The Dramatic Story of the Southern Judges Of The Fifth Circuit Who Translated The Supreme Court's Brown Decision Into a Revolution For Equality. Heroes, indeed, to tens of millions of Americans, who needed federal judges to help them cast off the "pernicious effects" of de jure segregation. Villains, as well, to men like Gingrich, who want to re-litigate the great civil rights cases.

Based upon his recent criticism of the Supreme Court's 1958 ruling in Cooper v. Aaron, in which the justices reminded Southern officials that they had to follow desegregation law, it's clear where Gingrich would have stood on Judges Wright and Tuttle. It's also clear where all of this is headed in 2012 -- two ribbons of fury, one aimed at California, where the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will soon rule on same-sex marriage, and one toward Washington, where the justices will rule on huge health care, redistricting, and immigration cases.

What's remarkable about all of this furor is that the complaint comes from some leading conservatives at a time when the federal courts are arguably as conservative as they have been in 75 years. From the Supreme Court down, Republican-appointees haven't wielded as much control on the bench since the Depression, when President Roosevelt and his gang railed against justices like Willis Van Devanter. The so-called Rehnquist Revolution has dramatically succeeded -- more so, you could further argue, than the Reagan Revolution.

And why not? There has been a Republican in the White House for 20 of the past 31 years -- two-thirds of that span -- and it shows. Since President Reagan's inauguration in 1981, the three Republican presidents have nominated 1,074 federal judges to the bench -- including seven Supreme Court justices. The two Democratic presidents by contrast have nominated just 496 federal judges and four Supreme Court justices. This isn't your father's federal judiciary. It's more like your great-grandfather's.