By James MacGregor Burns, Penguin Press, New York, N.Y. 326 pages, $27.50

James MacGregor Burns—the 89-year old distinguished historian and Pulitzer Prize winner noted for his biographical works on Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy and his esteemed work on presidential power and leadership—has written “Packing the Court,” a learned, brisk attack against the U.S. Supreme Court’s power to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional.