The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin

The Nine is a look at the workings of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), particularly the Rehnquist Court. I've had this on my list for a while, and I figured it would be a good read given the retirement of Justice Souter and the upcoming confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor. I wasn't disappointed. However, this book isn't for everyone. If you don't have an interest in politics, the law, or aren't a history and civics geek like me, the book may not hold your interest.

Toobin does a nice job of giving an historical framework to the court and the major cases that came before the Rehnquist Court. Even more interesting is his history of the conservative movement's push over the years to get "solid" judges placed on the SCOTUS mainly for the purpose of overturning Roe v. Wade and thus reinstating a ban on abortions.

The author also strongly argues against current Chief Justice Roberts' conception of the Justices being just like baseball umpires, simply calling balls and strikes according to well-defined rules. Toobin argues that just the opposite, the Court takes on the cases where the law is nebulous and without well-defined rules. If the rules had been that clear-cut, the cases would have been settled at a lower court or the SCOTUS would have declined to hear the appeal because they felt the decisions already made at the lower court were clear. And this is where politics and ideology come into play.

The Justices are most definitely political actors. They are appointed through a political process and gained their nominations through having political opinions. This doesn't mean that the Justices toe a particular party line (especially since most of them firmly believe in an independent judiciary), however, they tend to stick to their original political leanings. There is much hue and cry over the years about Justices "growing into the job" and becoming more liberal with time. Toobin argues that this isn't the case. It's simply that the Justices (especially Souter and O'Connor) didn't fit in with the ideological right wing's version of conservatism. Souter was (is) a moderate New England conservative and O'Connor grew up and served in Barry Goldwater's Republican Party, the one that was more interested in less restrictive government and didn't have as much of an interest in social issues. Toobin makes an iron-clad case that the Republican Party moved away from O'Connor, rather than vice versa. On the other hand, old habits and affiliations die hard, as is seen in her vote in Bush v. Gore that landed George W. Bush in the White House.

In all, I found it to be a fascinating book, but again, it won't be for everyone.