September 01, 2009

the nine :: jeffrey toobin

Title: The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court
Author: Jeffrey Toobin
Publisher: Anchor, 2008
Read: August 2009; San Francisco, NYC
Format: trade paperback

Raise your hand if you love the Supreme Court. (raising hand).


Why exactly do I love the SCOTUS (inside jargon!)? Is it the appealingly nerdy mysticism that shrouds the Bench? Maybe it's that the judges are brilliant beyond my comprehension. The building and bench are in themselves pretty cool too: imposing, elevated, transcendent. I say, It's all this and more! In his
The Nine, CNN legal expert Jeffrey Toobin shows that he agrees.

Depending on your POV (I guess), the tome is a left-leaning study of The Supreme Court from the Rehnquist Court through Alito’s appointment in 2005. Toobin guides a tour of the significant cases and peppers in thoughtful insights along the way. Of critical interest to him (and consequently the reader) is the evolution of the justices’ judicial philosophies, fascinatingly laid out through the
judges' parsed opinions. Further, another stand out feature of The Nine's is its account of the Court beyond the docket. Humanizing and often amusing, these anecdotes make this otherwise dry topic a more engaging experience.

Miscellaneous facts from the book

The Lineup (per the book's timeline)
The Liberals
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Clinton)
Stephen Breyer (Clinton)
John Paul Stevens (Ford)
David Souter (Bush #1)

The Conservatives
William Rehnquist, deceased (Chief, Reagan; Associate, Nixon)
Clarence Thomas (Bush #1)
Antonin Scalia (Reagan)
John Roberts (Chief, Bush #2)
Samuel Alito (Bush #2)

The Swings
Sandra Day O’Connor, retired (Reagan)
Anthony Kennedy (Reagan)

Factoids
  • Consistently liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg and incendiary conservative Antonin Scalia spend New Years' Eves with each other's families
  • Many powerful Washingtonians, including Sandra Day O'Connor, regularly set David Souter (a lifelong bachelor) up on dates
  • Sandra Day O'Connor had her clerks come into work early to participate in an exercise class with her.
  • Roberts clerked for Rehnquist; was then the only SCOTUS judge to serve with the justice they worked under
  • Clarence Thomas refuses to make commencement speeches or other appearances at Ivy League schools
Important Themes/Opinions/Controversies
  • Roe v. Wade (duh)/Casey v. Planned Parenthood
  • Right to privacy?
  • Church and state/school prayer
  • Affirmative action
  • 2000 presidential election
  • Stare decisis (honoring precedent)
It’s impossible to disassociate politics when considering SCOTUS and its decisions. Now more than ever, though, I understand that each justice has an underlying Constitutional philosophy to which they try to stay true. It’s not simply a matter of personal opinion and not just some arbitrary sense of right and wrong. Whether you agree or not, a justice's opinion on a given case is probably beyond sound if viewed impartially. The judges are tasked with interpreting the what Toobin aptly calls the Constitution's “majestic generalities”. Indeed. So majestic, in fact, that we need a special gang of impressive old people to help us understand it.

Obviously, I really liked the book. The one criticism that I do have is that it kind of loses momentum at the end. The pacing goes little off in the last section and the epilogue and afterword feel cobbled on, as they commonly do. Maybe it's unavoidable, though. How can you satisfyingly wrap up an account that doesn’t actually end? Regardless, it could stand a more finessed conclusion. This forgivable shortcoming is hardly a deal breaker, though.

Fascinating, informative and often entertaining:
4 out of 5 stars

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