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 | The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court
Author: Jeffrey Toobin
Publisher: Doubleday
Binding: Hardcover
Released: 2007-09-18
Sales Rank: 956
ISBN: 0385516401
Edition: 1
Cover
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 2008-08-15 - More of a gossip description of the justiices
I felt that this book took more of a gossip description of the justices--who likes eachother, who tried to set up eachother on dates, who hated eachother. That could have been fine as an addendum but I wanted more meat on the issues and how each jusitce came to form their opinion and their stand.
 2008-08-13 - Informative
If you've ever wanted to know what happens in the cloistered world of the Supreme Court, this book will give you a brief glimpse. It details not just the kinds of cases that the Supreme Court has heard over the last 30 years, but also what kind of people the Supreme Court Justices are and where they came from. Others have suggested there's a bias in this book, but I fail to see it. If the author spends a great deal of time talking about what conservatives were up to in filling the current nine seats, it's only because the last 30 years have been dominated by conservative presidents attempting to satisfy their conservative base. Anyway I found this book quite eye opening, and I hope anyone who is interested in how the Supreme Court works will give it a read.
2008-08-06 - 3.5 out of 5
The Nine is an in-depth portrayal of the current Supreme Court. Not only does Toobin cover the personality quirks and politics of the individual justices and their relationships with each other over time, he also analyzes the development and the current state of the Supreme Court's jurisprudence on key issues like abortion, gay rights, and affirmative action. Other than a few interesting bits of trivia, I didn't really learn anything new from The Nine, but I was entertained, and I think this book is a good introduction to the Supreme Court for those without much previous exposure.
2008-08-02 - Worthy Sequel to The Brethren
In The Nine, Jeffrey Toobin produces a worthy sequel to The Brethren. Covering roughly the period from 1987 to 2007, Mr. Toobin examines how the personalities of the individuals appointed to the court influence the outcome of decisions at the highest level.
In many respects, The Nine is the story of just two justices, Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy. One of the first stories in the book is how Justices Souter, O'Connor and Kennedy crafted a middle of the road compromise in the Casey abortion case which stole the majority away from Chief Justice Rehnquist and kept the more conservative justices from sharply limiting Roe v. Wade.
The Nine traces Justice O'Connor's transformation from a conservative Goldwater Republican to a more liberal voice alienated from her party. The author analyzes Justice O'Connor (who was the only former legislator on the court) as a politician seeking compromise and narrow opinions and trying to reach results consistent with popular opinion.
Her fellow swing vote, Justice Kennedy, receives a less sympathetic treatment. He is portrayed as having a love for flowery rhetoric and empty phrases. Despite their differing styles, they frequently held the balance on the court.
The differing styles of the Kennedy-O'Connor axis had dramatic fallout in Bush v. Gore. In that case, Justice Kennedy inclined toward a dramatic equal protection theory, while Chief Justice Rehnquist opted toward a more technical result under Article II of the Constitution. Justice O'Connor felt that the Florida Supreme Court was playing politics trying to help Al Gore win the election and that the result didn't pass the smell test. She wanted to find a middle ground for striking down the Florida Supreme Court's decision without joining the conservatives on the court. As a result, she agreed to sign on to Anthony Kennedy's opinion, but only if he would tone down his grand pronouncements. In response, Justice Kennedy added a sentence stating that each case was unique and that the Court was not laying down any general principles. O'Connor the politician severely miscalculated here. The Court's opinion was so narrow that it appeared to apply in just one case: allowing George W. Bush to win the election. By trying to go for a narrow, middle of the road solution, Justice O'Connor steered the court into a result that was just as political as the meddling by the Florida Supreme Court which she found to be disagreeable.
The Nine has a good job of depicting the justices as individuals. Clarence Thomas gets a sympathetic portrayal as a NASCAR-loving man of the people who was far more engaged than commonly believed.
Jeffrey Toobin highlights Justice Souter's quirky sense of humor. On being mistaken for Justice Breyer, he was asked what he enjoyed most about serving on the Court. With a perfectly straight face, he replied that it was the honor of serving with David Souter.
The book also captures the unusual collegiality of a court which was sharply divided on ideological grounds. Chief Justices Rehnquist and Roberts are given credit by their colleagues for running a process that was fair and open in conference in contrast to the more heavy handed Warren Burger. Judges of differing viewpoints vacationed and played cards together. Indeed, one of the most poignant stories in the book is the sadness felt by Justice Ginsberg when her two best friends on the court, Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice O'Connor, were no longer there.
Mr. Toobin's liberal point of view shows in a few instances. He doesn't quite get the Federalist Society. He describes the Federalist Society as being the vanguard of a conservative revolution to re-make the court. However, other than a few statements of core principles, the Federalist Society does not take positions on issues or litigate cases. Rather, it is a debating society of conservative and libertarian lawyers who generally favor judicial restraint. Mr. Toobin also devotes several passages to the prominent role of the Constitution-in-Exile movement, a position so obscure that many conservatives are not aware that it exists. (See the recent discussion in the Volokh Conspiracy blog for proof of this).
Despite these minor shortcomings, Mr. Toobin has produced a very readable and well-researched book. In addition to sketching detailed portraits of the individual justices, the book is a good syllabus of the major opinions of the Supreme Court over the past 20 years.
2008-08-01 - a short review
A history of the last 20 or so years of supreme court justices, namely the justices of the rehnquist court, but the end does talk about the nominations of john roberts and alito. Its kind of bland. I thought it would be a little more exciting, considering it was a best seller. How much discussion on Roe v Wade, death penalty, and gay rights can someone actually read about without being bored to tears.
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