The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin

This morning, I watched Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia do the book publicity song-and-dance on Tim Russert's show. He took questions about his judicial philosophy, and tried hard to behave himself. It felt strange. As a kid, all I knew of the Court was what I saw in snippets on the nightly news: confirmation hearings, swearings-in, and stock footage of Anita Hill. Never any selling or cajoling, which is the point of any Sunday morning talk show appearance.

This "better know a justice" phenomenon seems to be a direct byproduct of both the Rehnquist era and the hard work of Supreme Court groupies--er, journalists--like Jeffrey Toobin. His book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court has all the personality tidbits you could ever want, while laying out many of the significant decisions and issues of the past 25 years. And for someone who's paid attention mostly to anecdotal Court stuff over the years, it's a great narrative of the Rehnquist regime.

The book does have its flaws. Like the adherence to the same handful of issues we hear about over and over in the coverage of the Court. In fact, about fifty pages in, I was afraid the whole book would be about abortion cases (it wasn't, thankfully). Toobin does much better when he gets off the Roe v. Wade path, and talks about the justices' personalities.

Also, Toobin doesn't do much to disguise his own loyalties to the justices. He totally hearts Sandy Day O'Connor. Either she gave the most extensive interviews, or his mother was a WASP-y blonde dynamo. And his dislikes are equally obvious. Calling Justice Thomas "the nation's most famous beneficiary of affirmative action" who opposes the policy for everyone else probably won't get Toobin a seat at the next Thomas dinner party.

All the same, each justice gets his or her share of quirk. Ginsburg and Scalia spend New Year's together, despite bitter philosophical fights. Thomas kept photos on his desk of his clerk's lesbian partner. Breyer can't conduct conversations at a normal decibel. O'Connor made her clerks exercise with her. Rehnquist wrote a song about the Miranda case. Stevens defies all odds by sticking around and holding out for a Democratic president. Kennedy is a Republican who cares what the international community thinks. And Souter is a woodsman who pretends to be Justice Breyer at Massachusetts rest stops.** Souter actually gets some of the funniest moments in the book. Like when O'Connor, the "Yenta of Paradise Valley," tries to fix up the hermit bachelor on awkward dates.

I also enjoyed the insight into Clinton's justice-selection process (we came dangerously close to having to listen to Alfonse D'Amato trying to out-New York Scalia), and the shout-outs to some of my favorite recent cases. Kelo v. New London got a page or two, and even Bong Hits 4 Jesus scored a mention (I believe this is one of Scott's favorites as well, at least until the Court has to rule on the constitutionality of fogcutters).

There's also some heartache mixed in. Turns out I still can't read about Bush v. Gore without a physical tug of revulsion. Knowing that O'Connor came to despise Bush isn't much comfort after her very partisan swing vote put him into office. And I'm more terrified than ever that Stevens will drop dead before November, despite his best efforts to the contrary.

But fears and political ulcers aside, the book is fast-paced and witty. I'm pretty sure there aren't many jurisprudential books that would be compelling enough to make me drag them on the subway.

Some of the favorite parts:

"Meanwhile, Scalia wrote his own dissent, which surpassed even his own high standards for invective and hysteria."

"There, surrounded by many of the most powerful people in the country, Thomas paid tribute to himself for having the courage to agree with them."

"One of his fellow justices once prevailed Souter to take a woman out to dinner, and she reported back that she thought the evening had gone very well--until the end. Souter took her home, told her what a good time he had, then added: 'Let's do this again next year.'"

"At an appearance at a New York synagogue in 2005, Scalia was asked to compare his own judicial philosophy with that of Thomas. 'I am an originalist,' Scalia said, 'but I am not a nut.'"

"At his home in the Naval Observatory, Gore passed the news to his family and watched the coverage on television. At 3:11 p.m., he sent a BlackBerry message to his chief spokesmen, Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane: 'Please make sure that no one trashes the Supreme Court.'"




**This episode is under dispute by my independent Supreme Court expert. "What's the subset of Massachusetts rest-stop patrons who a) recognize the face of a sitting Justice, b) do not recall the name of said Justice, and c) recall the name of a different, semi-obscure Justice?"