Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction -- Terri's judge / Judge George W. Greer -- Rough justice / Judge Russell F. Canan -- A judge's hidden struggle : overcoming judicial culture -- Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown / Judge Mark Davidson -- Brave jenny -- Every case is a tough case for a new judge / Judge Michelle M. Ahnn -- United States v. I. Lewis "scooter" libby / Judge Michelle M. Abnn -- A quiet grief / Judge Lizbeth González -- United States v. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby / Judge Reggie B. Walton -- A judge's hidden struggle: overcoming judicial culture / Judge Gail Chang Bohr -- Can an elected judge overrule nearly a million voters and survive? / Judge Robert H. Alsdorf -- Walking with my ancestors : tribal justice for salmon running / Judge Allie Greenleaf Maldonado -- Crazy or cruel : the trial of an unexplained filicide / Judge Frederick H. Weisberg -- Building justice in Kosovo / Judge Edward S. Wilson -- Elián / Judge Jennifer D. Bailey.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have it easy―all they have to do is to present the evidence and make arguments. It's the judges who have the heavy lift: they are the ones who have to make the ultimate decisions, many of which have profound consequences on the lives of the people standing in front of them. In Tough Cases, judges from different kinds of courts in different parts of the country write about the case that proved most difficult for them to decide. Some of these cases received international attention: the Elián González case in which Judge Jennifer Bailey had to decide whether to return a seven-year-old boy to his father in Cuba after his mother drowned trying to bring the child to the United States, or the Terri Schiavo case in which Judge George Greer had to decide whether to withdraw life support from a woman in a vegetative state over the wishes of her parents, or the Scooter Libby case about appropriate consequences for revealing the name of a CIA agent. Others are less well-known but equally fascinating: a judge on a Native American court trying to balance U.S. law with tribal law, a young Korean American former defense attorney struggling to adapt to her new responsibilities on the other side of the bench, and the difficult decisions faced by a judge tasked with assessing the mental health of a woman who has killed her own children. Relatively few judges have publicly shared the thought processes behind their decision making. Tough Cases makes for fascinating reading for everyone from armchair attorneys and fans of Law and Order to those actively involved in the legal profession who want insight into the people judging their work.