Book Review: The Nine

I just finished Jeffrey Toobin’s bestselling book on the Supreme Court, “The Nine.” This intricate and detailed account of the lives of the SCOUTUS justices, their ideologies and personal histories is written in a loose yet intelligent manner. Instead of a boring and dry textual recounting of history Toobin takes steps to keep his readers interested and engaged. The reader also sees the macro view of the court and how its position in American civic life and politics has evolved dramatically in the last decade.

A Harvard educated lawyer and CNN legal analyst Toobin is no stranger to law and its intricacies. Even with this potentially aloof background he’s able to make this book into something of a page turner. All of the great cases that have come before SCOTUS in the last decade (Casey v. Planned Parenthood, Bush v. Gore, Grutter v. Bollinger) are laid out accessibly. The internal machinations of the court from how other justices are able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat to their own personal opinions of one another are well documented. The book’s insight in this regard is outstanding.

Special attention is paid to the rise of religious right in the Republican Party and its effect on the selection of judges. Conservatives, according to Toobin, have politicized the court and sought to use it as a weapon with which to advance their agenda. Jay Sekulow is played up as some type of demi-god within the Christian right. Liberals on the other hand lack the organizational muscle of such groups as The Federalist Society and The American Center for Law and Justice. A fascinating example of this is given in the controversy surrounding the nomination of Harriett Miers. The White House’s greatest fear was never finding a nominee able to get past the Senate Democrats; they were far more worried about pleasing conservatives who would accept nothing less than a full-fledged originalist.

This isn’t an objective book. Toobin’s opinions of the justices and their ideologies are quiet plain. He regards Thomas as a throwback, a radical seeking to return the country to the late 19^th century. He seems to revere Sandra Day O’Connor, not only for her outsized influence on the court as the “moderate”, but also because of her intense efforts to strike a “middle ground.” While such attempts to reach decisions that reflect a majority view of the public may be popular their intellectual foundations rest more with personal opinion than with the actual text of the law. This isn’t a negative reflection on Toobin’s work; it is merely an acknowledgement that he is coming at this with his own opinions and biases. Don’t charge into this expecting to get a journalistic reading of recent SCOTUS history.

Despite the author’s subjective view anyone seeking a concise and easy read about the last decade of American jurisprudence and the politics that have shaped it would do well to read this book.